


Slower and Steadier

by Kajamc



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Character Development, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28786365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kajamc/pseuds/Kajamc
Summary: I always wanted Haikyuu to have a lot more character development outside of the volleyball, so this is precisely that! Starting with Yachi's introduction into the show at the beginning of season 2, this fanfic goes much more in depth into all of the members of Karasuno high school, day by day. I intend to follow the canon for the most part, only breaking from it to change the relationships between characters and make them a little bit less... volleyball-ey.
Relationships: Hinata Natsu & Hinata Shouyou, Hinata Natsu & Yachi Hitoka, Hinata Shouyou & Yachi Hitoka, Hinata Shouyou/Yachi Hitoka, Sawamura Daichi & Nishinoya Yuu, Sawamura Daichi & Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Shimizu Kiyoko & Yachi Hitoka
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	1. Direct Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Direct Starlight is written during the events of Season 2 Episodes 2 and 3 (Direct Sunlight and Villager B). I tried to keep as close to the actual events of the anime as possible, at least for this chapter.

The Boy’s volleyball club was full of some of the scariest people ever. At least, that’s what Yachi told herself. Somehow she’d let this girl Kiyoko woo her into agreeing to see the club after school. But fucking hell are the boys scary. Some of the tall ones who she assumed were third years looked like they were 25 years old! And they’re so tall and so fucking scary…

So of course Yachi was freaked out about teaching Hinata and Kageyama. At first glance, Hinata and Kageyama were no less threatening than the rest of them. Kageyama was over 30 centimeters taller than her, and couldn’t wipe that scowl off of his face no matter how hard he tried. Though Hinata was a lot shorter, he made up for it with his ridiculous bundle of energy. She’d never seen a student as dumb as Hinata be so eager to learn. Oh, yeah there was that, too. Hinata and Kageyama were some of the dumbest people she’d ever met (Though Yachi would never dare tell that to their faces). 

Despite all that seemed weird or off-putting about the pair, Yachi couldn’t help but have fun teaching them. They weren’t bad students by any means. They were enthusiastic to learn, and actually took studying seriously. It was just… This was probably the first time they’ve ever needed to care about good grades. It amazed her just how much effort they were putting into studying just so they could go to a training camp for volleyball. Yachi had never seen someone so willing to go all out for something like that.

Everything was swirling through my head as I sat through the last period, struggling to really focus on the lesson. I was still weighing whether or not I should go back to the gym after my committee activities. I did tell Hinata I’d stop by, so I guess I had to. Maybe I’ll tell Kiyoko that I need another day to make a decision.

With the bell, I made my way through the school to my committee meeting, weaving in and out of other students trying to get to the exits. It wasn’t much work, but Mom really wanted to make sure I was an upstanding student, so I could get a good job, though I don’t want to become a workaholic like her…

My mind really wasn’t into the meeting today. It was up in the clouds, or rather, at the gym. It was full of a bunch of crazy people who I’d already started to warm up to. Kiyoko was probably the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen in person. Kageyama might be all frowns on the outside, but inside his devotion to improvement was crazy. And Hinata was a bundle of joy that I just couldn’t help smiling at :) Of course, I still paid enough attention at the meeting that my mind didn’t wander off completely, but in it I silently made the decision to stop in, even if only for a little bit.

When Kageyama and Hinata started talking about volleyball back in our study group earlier, every word seemed so foreign to me. Now, watching volleyball in action, I was blown away at it. How the hell does Hinata jump so damn high? How can that crazy second year dive to the ground so effortlessly? How does Kageyama serve the ball so hard (Oh yeah, the one thing I knew about volleyball was what a serve was)? With the ball flying seemingly every which way, I was on edge the entire time. And it didn’t help that I already assumed the coach was a criminal…

I gotta say though, they seem like really nice people. I already get along with Hinata pretty well, and none of the rest of them really seem like delinquents (Well maybe besides shaved head and “Rolling Thunder”). I remember one stray ball that came speeding at me, that Hinata deflected only a foot from my face. I was so frazzled I couldn’t even stutter a thank you. Oh god was it embarrassing.

THEN I SAID EVEN MORE EMBARRASSING STUFF. Ughhhhhh. After the practice, Hinata was literally glowing, but I couldn’t give him a straight answer as to if I’d join the club. I told Kiyoko that I’d get back to her. I have to talk things through with my mom first, and who knows how that's gonna go. 

It’s already 11:00 now, so it’s useless to think about joining any longer. Hinata probably wouldn’t be happy if I told him that my mom wasn’t letting me join anyways. He’s that type of person. I wonder what Hinata thinks of me, anyways?

Man, I wonder what Yachi thinks? I hope we didn’t scare her at the club, or maybe when Kageyama and I were studying with her… She did seem on edge a lot. I really hope that Yachi joins though. Tanaka and Nishinoya seemed five times more energetic and devoted today. At least when they weren’t fanboying over Kiyoko…

I think she’ll be good for the club, plus her studying was so helpful! Tsuki sucks. All he does is call Kageyama and I idiots. How do we expect to learn anything like that? But Yachi made everything so clear and I got so much more done. I’ll have to get her to help me study some more sometime. Maybe I’ll ask for her number tomorrow, if she does decide to join the club. If Yachi does join though, I’m sure everyone will be happier, I know that.

Hinata reached the crest of the tallest hill he needed to climb. Just 10 minutes away from home. From that point it was just a downward plunge to his town. 

The incoming summer heat was starting to get to Hinata. Despite it already being nighttime, he was panting on his way down. It had been a long day, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Yachi had helped him study, and practice was a good one. Of course, Hinata was happy to just play volleyball no matter what, but boy did the Karasuno boys make it enjoyable. He could feel himself improving bit by bit, and apparently Natsu could see it, too.

Some nights he would find himself too restless to get some sleep, and so he’d practice outside, keeping the ball in the air as long as he could. Every once in a while, Natsu would sit outside, too, watching on in silent awe. Though he would never tell her, Hinata took pride in captivating Natsu’s attention. Every time he’d see Natsu watching him he’d try something a little bit more elaborate. Showing off helped him improve a bit too, since oftentimes he’d mess up and have to recover the ball. But he never let it touch the ground.

While he could stay up the whole night keeping the ball in the air, his mother wouldn’t let him, and Daichi wouldn’t be happy about it either. So reluctantly, he’d wander inside and into his room. The best he could do was to shut his eyes and try not to think about volleyball too much.  
But for the first time in a long while, volleyball wasn’t the only thing on Hinata’s mind as he pulled up to his house. Something, or someone else had wiggled into his head, even just a little bit. 

“Shoyooooooooooooooo!” Natsu ran out the door to greet the sweating Shoyo, “You’re late again, we almost started dinner!”

Shoyo looked down at his sisters big eyes, like pools of moonlight, “Yeah yeah, Natsu, I know. Practice went a little bit later than usual today, and I was dead coming back, so it took me a little longer.” He ruffled her hair as he brought his bike to it’s spot leaning against the house, 

“I’ll be sure to make my bath quick so you won’t be hungry for too long.”

“You better!” Natsu huffed and turned away, making her way towards the dining room. 

Shoyo smiled as he watched her go, then made his way to the bathroom, where his mom had already prepared everything for his bath. With a smile, he slowly started removing his clothes. 

He was tired. More so than he’d ever felt after a practice, and the batch welcomed him in like a temptress. Once fully naked, he dove into the bath with haste, dissolving into the warm water.

“That hits the fuckin’ spot,” he mumbled under his breath, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. 

Maybe I can relax just a little bit. I’m sure Natsu can wait another five minutes before we eat… dinner… 

With a thud, Shoyo’s head hit the side of the bath. He straightened out, suddenly aware of his surroundings again. Whoa don’t sleep just yet! Shoyo slapped himself on the cheeks hard, sending water splashing out of the tub, and began furiously scrubbing himself down from head to toe. 

In just five minutes Shoyo dragged himself out of the bath, cleaner, but somehow even more tired than before. He could barely keep his eyes open in the steamy room, but helped himself stay awake by splashing his face with cold water from the sink. He’d be awake just long enough to eat dinner, he thought.

When he got downstairs Natsu and the rest of his family were already waiting at the table. He plopped down a bit too heavily, warranting a glare from his mother, but Shoyo cared more about the food in front of him than his mother’s gaze. 

“いただきます!” Natsu and Shoyo dug into their food with vigor, and rice flew everywhere. Only with swift knocks from their mother did they begin to slow down and chew.

In only a few minutes, Shoyo’s plate was devoid of everything edible, and his appetite had somehow been sated. The rest of his family watched on in silent awe as he cleaned up his plate. Even Natsu’s jaw had dropped. Shoyo looked up, only just noticing their stares, “What? Something on my face?” He brushed his cheeks but felt nothing.

“H-how did you eat that much?” Natsu managed to get out.

“Huh? I was hungry? How much did I eat?” In all that time Shoyo never bothered to think about how much he was actually consuming. 

“You ate literally everything, Shoyo,” his mom said, matter of factly, putting her utensils down and inspecting the dishes on the table. Not so much as a grain of rice remained anywhere. 

Natsu frowned, throwing her chopsticks on the table, “Shoyooooo I was hungry tooo! You ate it all!” She turned to him and started lightly punching his arm, not hard, but enough to get the message across. Shoyo smiled and put his hand on her head, rubbing her hair. 

“Yeah yeah, how about I go out and buy you some dessert?”

Immediately, Natsu’s face lit up. She jumped to her feet, “Really really really? I want ice cream then! The biggest one you can find.”

Shoyo laughed softly, and stood up himself, “I’ll see what I can find, okay?” He made his way to the door, being sure to grab his wallet on the way out. Sitting by the front door to put on his shoes, he called out to his mom in the kitchen, “Mom! I’m going out to buy Natsu some ice cream! I’ll be back in a few!”

“Don’t fall asleep!”

It was already late enough at night that most homes and stores had closed down in the area, and Shoyo was left with an eerie feeling as he walked down alley after alley to the nearest convenience store. The streetlights didn’t help the mood either, since they were in terrible condition. It seemed every other light was flickering or broken. The houses and walls around Shoyo encroached on him, and almost blotted out the sky. Almost.

Above him the stars shined brightly, illuminating even the unlit alleyways and street corners. He could see the Milky Way above him, and found himself walking with his eyes glued to the sky. There were so many stars tonight.

It’s beautiful

Shoyo recalled a conversation he had with Natsu during summer break last year.

“Shoyo, how are constellations made?”  
He chuckled to himself silently, “They’re not made, Natsu. Someone looked up into the sky one day, hundreds of years ago, and decided that those stars look like something, even if they really didn’t. That’s happened hundreds of times so now we have hundreds of constellations”

Natsu let out a small gasp and turned her eyes back to the sky, steam escaping from her mouth with every breath. She was wrapped snugly in a blanket with Shoyo as they sat together on the back porch, basking in each others’ warmth. “Do you think I can make a constellation?” Natsu asked.

“I don’t see why not, anybody can make a constellation.”

She pointed outwards towards the sky, leading Shoyo’s eyes, “You see those 6 stars making a smiley face?” She turned her head to Shoyo, looking for confirmation.

He nodded, and broke out in a smile, “I do, that’s your constellation?”

“That’s me! I’m gonna name that constellation Natsu because it’s smiling like I am!”

Shoyo turned to look at Natsu again. She faced him, grinning ear to ear. Her eyes reflected the stars like a mirror. Shoyo could almost see the Milky War in them. 

He broke out into a grin, too.

“I can see the resemblance.”

Today, Shoyo tried to remember where Natsu’s newly established constellation was, whilst glancing down every once in a while to make sure he was still travelling in the right direction. There were more stars out tonight than last summer, so it would be a little harder. In fact, to Shoyo, this was probably the most stars he had ever seen before. His smile grew even larger.

He didn’t find the constellation by the time he got to the convenience store. Luckily, there was still a few minutes before closing, and Hinata grabbed the largest ice cream out of the freezer. Within seconds, he was outside again, with his eyes glued to the sky.

It took him two more minutes to find it. Natsu’s face was barely visible amongst the sea of other stars. He wondered how people recorded constellations so easily thousands of years ago, but decided not to think too much, since it never really was one of his strong suits. 

After a few more minutes of walking while staring at the sky above, The Hinata household came into view, with the silhouette of a child standing at the front door.

“Took you long enough, Shoyo!” Natsu frowned

“Yeah yeah, I was looking at the stars!”

“Why would you do that? All you care about is volleyball.”

“Not true! I was looking for your constellation, remember?”

Shoyo had reached natsu and handed the ice cream over, though it was already starting to melt. Natsu didn’t seem to care though, as she grabbed it eagerly, and started wolfing it down.

“Hey, whoa, take your time, Natsu, you’ll get aー”

“Hrrrrrnghhhh!”

“Brain… freeze…”

The brain freeze didn’t slow Natsu down for very long, though, as she wolfed down the rest of it in record time. It took a couple seconds for Shoyo to rub all of the mess off of Natsu’s face, however. 

“Thank you for the ice cream!” Natsu grinned, bouncing up and down, “So so so Shoyo! Did you find my constellation again?”

Shoyo smiled and ruffled Natsu’s hair, “I did!” He turned to look at the sky again, pointing to where he saw the constellation before, “See? Right about there.”

Natsu was bouncing up and down even more now. The thought: Perhaps ice cream this late at night was a bad idea, passed through Shoyo’s head.

“I see it! I see it! My constellation!”

She turned and looked up into Shoyo’s eyes, “Thank you.” Natsu’s smile stretched from the moon and back, infecting his heart.

Shoyo turned his head to the stars one last time, ingraining in his memory such an eventful day. Nothing important happened, or at least, nothing that he thought would change his life, but for some reason, that day seemed like it would last in the confines of his memories until the day he died. Studying with Yachi, having an eventful volleyball practice, and grabbing ice cream for Natsu under the stars didn’t really seem like much.

Just then, one of the stars moved. No, it’s a shooting star, Shoyo thought to himself.

“Look Shoyo! A shooting star!”

“Be sure to make a wish Natsu  
”  
Natsu giggled, but remained silent, evidently thinking something up. Shoyo thought too, though the first thing that came to mind: I hope Yachi joins the volleyball club, surprised him. 

“Shoyo! Shoyo!” Natsu tugged on his shirt, “What did you wish for.”

He looked down, still a little confused, “Natsu, you know if you say it out loud it’s less likely to come true,” he chided. Natsu responded with a little pout, but didn’t fight.

She turned around and made her way inside. I guess that’s the day, Shoyo thought. It was late. He was dead tired.

Shoyo trudged up to his bedroom, the grogginess beginning to take over his body. Even though he felt the effects of his day catching up to him, his mind was a million miles away, thinking about volleyball. Tomorrow was gonna be a new day, which meant more training. Maybe he could work on his receiving? Maybe his broadshots? Maybe Yachi would come and announce to Kiyoko that she’d decided she’ll join the club. And maybe she’d agree to help Shoyo study some more?

He finally found his bed, and was now standing over it. The last of his batteries finally ran out as he fell into the mattress, still wearing his jacket and socks. Shoyo was out even before he hit the pillow.


	2. Much Ado About Yachi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Yachi to seriously consider joining the volleyball club, but something is still holding her back. But with the guiding hand of her senpai (though she's more like a matchmaker), maybe she'll be on the right path?

“How do I describe it? Like uh一” Adrenaline was still running through Yachi’s veins after Karasuno’s match against Ouginishi High. Well, you can call it a match, but if anything it was an exhibition of Karasuno’s players. There wasn’t much of a competition happening between the teams. There was a huge skill difference between every facet of the team. Kageyama was a stronger setter than Ouginishi’s. Asahi was a better ace. Nishinoya was a better libero (a position that Yachi had just learned about from Kiyoko). Even Yamaguchi was a better pinch server. It was safe to say that Yachi’s mind had been blown to smithereens.

“Like PHWAOOO, right?!” Despite playing 2 whole sets just minutes before, Hinata was still plenty hyper to join Yachi in their antics.

“Mhm! Like PHWAA!” Yachi nodded her head enthusiastically.

“Then you should join!” Hinata took a step closer to Yachi, as she took a step back, already unsure of how to respond.

Yachi sighed, waving her hands as if to throw off Hinata's request, “I’m not so sure…”

Hinata took another step forward, “You know you want to!” 

She did. She really really did want to join the team, even if she wasn’t doing much she wanted to join, but her mom’s words echoed in her ear, just make sure to do your best, I know everyone on the team will. I know you don’t want to be the lazy one do you? Could she really be part of the team if she was just a first year girl? What could she possibly bring to the team?

Yachi bowed her head, “But, you have such a great team and I’m just villager B who doesn’t know anything about sports. I think I’d just get in your way.” Even after she said all that, though, Hinata didn’t seem to care. 

He looked at her bowing figure and stated matter-of-factly, “I played villager B one time! But, people didn’t like it…” Surprised, Yachi raised her head to look at Hinata. 

“Yeah, because I tried to stand out more than the main character.” 

Hinata was villager B once? Yachi thought to herself. I guess I could see that happening. Then maybe he’d have to get dragged off the stage by some parents after spiking a volleyball into the crowd…

Her thoughts were interrupted by Hinata speaking again, “Villager B is cool! Cooler than anybody on this whole planet!”

Cool? Villager B? Yachi looked down, spacing out again.

“Villager B is cool,” Yachi muttered under her breath, “Cooler than anybody on the whole planet.” Maybe it didn’t matter what role Yachi had, only that she accomplished it to her fullest potential. She’d have to let her mom know she was serious about the volleyball club. Villager B was serious this time. She silently made a promise to herself that she would do whatever it took to join the volleyball club, for Hinata, and for herself.

“Yachiiiii!” It was Hinata again, “We are almost done, you can probably get changed now. Just check with Kiyoko first.”

She nodded, opening her mouth to thank Hinata, but he turned away, running over to Kageyama to held him put the chairs back under the stage. Yachi sighed, and looked around the gym for Kiyoko. Finally, she spotted her by the equipment room, rolling her eyes at something that scary second-year had said. What was his name, Tanaka?

As she made her way over to Kiyoko, they made eye contact, with Kiyoko giving her a huge smile, “Today was good wasn’t it?”

“I didn’t know they were so strong,” Yachi gushed, “At points it was hard to even call the other team their opponent.”

Kiyoko turned towards Yachi as she talked, laughing, “Yeah, yeah. They amaze me sometimes.”

They met at center court.

“Come on, let’s walk to the changing rooms together.”

As they walked, they discussed the game again. Yachi learned so much more about volleyball than she’d thought possible. Who knew there was so much depth to this game? I thought you just hit it? Yachi chided herself silently for thinking that the sport would be so simple.

“Despite being their manager for so long, it still amazes me how focused they can be,” Kiyoko continued, “You know. They can be scary when they play. Even moreso than when they practice.”

“I don’t think I saw Tanaka or ‘Rolling Thunder’ trying to get your attention once,” Yachi teased.

Kiyoko tried to stifle her laugh but failed miserably, “Yeah, they love their volleyball. I mean, think about it. Did you ever see them break their focus from the game once?”

Yachi thought to herself, “I guess not. It was like we didn’t exist.”

“Yeah. When they’re on the court they're all in their own world. Only volleyball matters. Sometimes I think that I’m not even needed, but then again, they’d be nowhere without Mr. Takeda, Ukai, and me.”

“What do you mean by that? Are you guys really that important?”

“Of course we are. Mr. Takeda is in charge of everything behind the scenes. He schedules practice games, makes sure the finances are in order. Stuff like that. Ukai is probably the only reason we’re this good in the first place. It’s under his guidance that Hinata and Kageyama are growing so much. Without Ukai and Daichi, Tanaka and Nishinoya would probably have been kicked out of the club by now.”

They had arrived at the Girls’ Changing Room now. All of the lights were off, but thankfully, all of their stuff was still in the same place.

“And what about you, Kiyoko?”

Kiyoko stopped. She put down her bag, “That’s hard to say. I like to think that my job is all about making sure that all the players can focus on volleyball, and improving themselves. I’m the manager, so I guess you could say my job would be to manage the players right? Make sure they’re all able to play as best they can.”

“Hmm,” Yachi was thinking too much again, “Then what could I do? I don’t think I’m really needed.”

“That’s not true. I’m a third-year, remember?”

Yachi nodded.

Kiyoko continued, “I’ll be gone after the next tournament, so that’s where you come in. I need somebody to take my job, and so we found you.”

“I don’t think I’ll do such a good job as you, though. I mean you see how you just saying ‘Good luck’ encourages them so much.”

Kiyoko chuckled, shutting the door to the locker that previously held her school bag, “That comes with the experience, Yachi. I’ve known them a lot longer than I have. Plus, I have a suspicion that you’d do a lot better at encouraging Hinata than I ever could.”

A sly smile drew itself across Kiyoko’s face, and she elbowed Yachi in the ribs. Yachi wanted to be mad at Kiyoko for that, but against her will, a small smile formed.

“Oh cut it out, I still don’t know if I’m gonna join full time.”

This time is was Kiyoko’s turn to frown, “Why’s that? Don’t you want to join?”

“Well, yeah,” Yachi sighed, “But I don’t know if my mom would be happy with me joining. She’s been echoing my fears about everything, plus she’s always at work and一”

“So sit her down and go ‘Mom I need to talk’ or something. Let her know it’s important, right?”

“I guess. I’ll try tonight, if she’s home.”

Kiyoko put her hands on Yachi’s shoulders, eliciting a small jump from the blonde girl, “That’s what I like to hear,” Kiyoko bent down to look eye to eye with Yachi, “I think you can do it.”

“Thank you.”

Kiyoko clapped her hands and grabbed her bag from one of the benches scattered throughout the changing room, “Now let’s go, we don’t want you to be home too late do we?”

With the lights in the changing room off and the door locked, they made their way back outside. Kiyoko was a step ahead of Yachi when they turned the corner to see the second gymnasium, where the team had practiced. She stopped abruptly, causing Yachi to walk into her back, “Sorry!” Yachi mutted. Kiyoko didn’t even acknowledge it. A grin had spread across her face again, and she turned towards Yachi, “I was gonna offer to walk you home, buuut…”

Kiyoko turned her eyes towards the gym, “It looks like that won’t be needed.”

“What do you一” Yachi followed Kiyoko’s eyes, “Oh.”

A certain orange haired was leaning against the wall of the gym, right next to the entrance, having what seemed to be a very heated conversation with the libero (Nishinoya, was it?). From their waving hands and exasperated movements, it was clearly something about volleyball, though without hearing what they were talking about Yachi couldn’t be sure.

“Hey Hinata!” Kiyoko shouted across to the two boys. They stopped their frantic waving and turned to the voice, “Yachi here shouldn’t walk home this late alone, don’t you think?”

The orange haired boy jogged over, his bike wheeled beside him, “Yachi, want a ride?”

Yachi really wasn’t able to refuse, “S-sure”

Hinata broke out into a large grin, glowing brightly. I see where he gets his name from…

Kiyoko knocked Yachi’s shoulder with her elbow, “Good luck with your mom, Yachi. I believe in you.” And with a wave of her hand, Kiyoko was walking away, leaving the partially stunned manager-to-be and confused middle blocker.

“So,” Hinata was the first one to break the silence, “Where do you live.”

Yachi’s face was beginning to turn pink.

It didn’t help matters that Hinata’s bike could barely fit the pair of them. Yachi found her arms wrapped around Hinata’s torso, growing tighter and tighter every time they hit a little bump. Hills were not Yachi’s forte. She dug her face into Hinata’s back, and fingers into his chest, gripping his Karasuno team jacket tightly.

“I think that’s a bit tight Yachi,” Hinata said, almost teasingly, “I’m not that bad a cyclist, am I?”

Yachi felt her face couldn’t get anymore red. Here she was, clinging to a boy she’d spoken to so little, while that boy was biking her home, “S-sorry! Sorry! It’s just… I’ve never done this before!”

“Hey hey, I’ve only ever done this with my sister and she’s about six years younger than me. So it’s a little different.”

Hinata’s got a little sister?

“Hey, Hinata.”

“What’s up?”

“Your little sister, what’s she like?”

Hinata laughed, “You wanna know? A lot of people say she’s just like me. Even though she’s six years younger, she’s able to match me plate for plate at dinner, but she never gains weight. She’s the fastest in her grade during all the athletics tests, but she still tries to run even faster, just to beat me. She almost beat the boys’ time last year, actually.”

Yachi smiled into Hinata’s jacket, “She sounds just like you.”

“You think so? Natsu doesn’t really play volleyball. She’s taller than I was though. She loves ice cream. Video games. She’s more of an otaku than I am, and she’s only 10.”

“You don’t have anything like that?”

“Not really. I sold my games to buy this bike. I live over the mountains, you see, so it’s a bit of a hike to get to school everyday.”

Yachi sat up from Hinata, though her arms were still firmly planted at his sides, “You’re biking away from your house though! You shouldn’t go this far.”

Hinata turned his head a bit. Yachi could just see his eyes now.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ve been doing this for a while you know. Today was less tiring than yesterday, even.”

“Yesterday was a practice though, and today was a game, though.” She phrased her statement as more of a question.

“We won both of the sets handedly, remember? There were no really long rallies, so it’s not like I tired myself out that much.” Hinata rubbed the back of his neck.

“You still played the entire game, don’t you think that’s tiring?”

“And I played the entire practice, too.”

Yachi paused. I guess when you’re this devoted to volleyball it doesn’t matter if it’s a game or a practice, you still work your hardest. “I guess you’re right.”

“We spent a lot of our time today getting set up and warming up for the game, so in total we played a lot less volleyball. I still had fun though. I think we all get a kick out of showing off our new skills to the other teams. I mean you saw after Kageyama and I did the Super Quick Attack (©) how they reacted. Like half of them had their jaws wide open!”

Yachi and Hinata laughed together, remembering the game. But Yachi couldn’t keep laughing for all that long.

“I want to keep watching you guys play, even just one more time, but I don’t know, my mo一”

“I’ll help you!”

Just as the redness covering Yachi’s cheeks had faded, it came back in an instant. She ducked her face into Hinata’s back again, giving him a little jump.

“Thanks but, you’ve already done so much for me I’d hate to…” Yachi trailed off, unsure of how to properly air her concerns.

“If it’s about the volleyball club it’s my problem, Yachi.” Hinata slowed down his biking a little bit, “I won’t let anybody prevent you from doing what you want.”

Yachi was looking at the back of Hinata’s head now, smiling softly, “Thanks, Hinata, I mean it”

He turned his head for a second to look at her. Their eyes locked for just a split second before Hinata turned back to looking forward, but that fraction of a second comforted Yachi.

“Yachi, we’re close.”

She looked up. Sure enough, they were about a block away from her building. She smiled to herself. Even though it had only been fifteen minutes at the most, she already felt a lot more comfortable with Hinata. Even though the spring air was already growing warmer, it was still a lot more comfortable to bask in Hinata’s warmth, especially as they sped down the hilly roads towards her apartment.

“Thank you for bringing me home, Hinata.”

“Aw don’t worry about it,” Hinata rubbed the back of his head, “You helped me study after all.”

“Well,” Yachi collected herself. They were right outside her building now, “You’re easy to teach, so it wasn’t much trouble for me.”

“Maybe so, though Tsuki didn’t seem to think so.”

“Tsukishima doesn’t strike me as the teaching type, you know.”

“I guess, though he could have at least tried teaching instead of insulting us.”

Yachi climbed off of Hinata’s bike, reluctantly letting go of Hinata.

“Speaking of teaching,” Hinata turned to dig through his bag, “Can you teach me again?”

He took Yachi by surprise, pulling out his phone, “You want my number?”

Hinata looked down at his phone, a small blush spreading across his cheeks, “Well, yeah. I mean, if you’re free over the weekend I’d like some help. Plus, if you join the club It’d be better to ask sooner rather than later, right?”

Yachi held out her hand, “Got it, I can give it.” 

Hinata placed his phone in her hand gingerly. She typed away quickly, Hitoka Yachi :), “All set,” Yachi said, handing the phone back to Hinata.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, neither one knowing what to say next. Finally Hinata spoke, “It’s getting a bit late. I think Natsu might eat my dinner for me if I don’t get back soon.”

Yachi smiled, “I’ll see you on the weekend then?”

It was Hinata’s turn to smile, “Yup!”

He steadied himself on the bicycle before speeding off. Now, mom, Yachi thought. She would be hard. It wasn’t that she wasn’t willing to let Yachi do anything, but it would be hard to convince her that she was needed by the team, and that Yachi really did want to be a manager.

A lot was swirling through her head as she made her way to her apartment, and she didn’t even register the buzz from her phone in her bag. 

The door was locked as usual, so Yachi took the keycard out of her bag and inserted it into the lock. In one fluid motion, Yachi took the card out and opened the door, barely making a sound. She quickly began taking off her shoes. “Mom, I’m home!” She shouted.

No response.

The apartment was too quiet for Yachi’s mom to be home. Maybe she hadn’t come home yet, or maybe she had just left? Yachi walked to the living room, where a note sat on the coffee table: I left to attend an urgent work meeting tonight, so I won’t be home until very late. Make some dinner yourself and go to sleep at a reasonable hour please? Love, Mom. 

Yachi scowled, so much for that plan, she thought. She crumpled up the note and tossed it in the bin for the kitchen. 

Dinner tonight would be something simple.

Yachi’s phone buzzed again, after she’d gotten out of the bath. 

The first text was from about forty minutes prior: Hi!!! It’s Hintata!

The next: Were you able to talk to your mom?

She frowned, and opened her phone to type out a response: No, she’d already left for a business meeting by the time I’d gotten home, so there’s nothing I can do tonight.

She saw the read receipt immediately after sending: Aw, I’m sorry about that. Tomorrow then, I know you’ll be able to do it.

Yachi smiled a bit at the text. Now that she had Hinata’s number, she could ask the question she was too afraid to ask in person: Hey, Hinata, can I ask you something?

Always.

Why did you start playing volleyball? I mean, no offense but you see too short to have just picked it up for no reason.

There wasn’t a response for a long time, and Yachi was just starting to feel that maybe she’d asked something a bit too personal, when her phone vibrated again.

The first time I had ever watched volleyball was five years ago, I think. I was biking past an electronics store near my elementary school, when I heard cheering from one of the TVs in the display. Karasuno High’s team was playing in the Spring Nationals that year, with the original Coach Ukai. I remember being drawn in by the bright blue and orange court, but then I saw The Tiny Giant hit a spike. He was even smaller than I am now, but he jumped so high that his spike went right over every blocker. The fact that he was so short yet pulled off something like that blew me away. I wanted to be just like him. And so I bought a volleyball. At first I was terrible. I had no one to play with, and I was the only member of my middle school’s volleyball team. I’d train cardio with the baseball team, and work on my volleyball with the girls team.

Yachi smiled at the text. To her, it was amazing that Hinata could get so much drive, just from that. His devotion to the game was on a level completely different from her own.

I only played in one tournament before going into high school, because we never had enough players to get a full team together. Finally, though, I managed to convince two of my friends from the soccer club, and three first years to play. We only had two practice sessions before the tournament, so it wasn’t like we did well. In fact, we lost our game in just 31 minutes. And the setter of the team we faced? Kageyama. I think it was his drive, his ability, that pushed me to deciding on Karasuno officially. The look on his face when I walked into the club on the first day and he was already there training serves. It was priceless.

From that point, Yachi had heard the story from Kiyoko. How Hinata and Kageyama got kicked out, then had to beat Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to get back into the club. And somehow they did it. Yachi looked over the text again before typing her response.

I didn’t realize you’d been working for it for so long! I can’t imagine something like that.

The response was quick.

I still have a long way to go.

Yachi stopped.

And if I want the volleyball club to be the best it can be, that includes you, Yachi. We’ll need you once Kiyoko graduates. Somebody’s gotta keep Tanaka and Nishinoya in line.

She laughed.

One step at a time, Hinata.

That’s right.

Saturday?

Oh, Yeah! My house is a little bit of a ways away from yours, so I don’t want to make you go too far out of your way…

My mom might not even be home anyways, so I might be stuck here…

Then I’ll go to your place, if that’s okay?

Yachi paused, weighing her options.

Works for me!

Sweet! I’ll see you then :)

Yachi smiled as she put down her phone. I guess I better wash my face and brush my teeth before I go to sleep. She made her way to the darkened bathroom.

The lights above the mirror flickered on, showing Yachi’s slightly unkempt face. It was twisted into a goofy grin. Hinata. She shook her head, turning the faucet on. The cold water hit her senses like a bullet. 

When she looked up again, her face was just smiling softly, though her cheeks were dusted a light pink. Sleep would be a little bit difficult tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: In Season 2, Episode 3 (“Villager B”), Hinata and Kageyama are both studying with Yachi on the Saturday after Karasuno’s practice game against Ogi Nishi High. As you’ll see, that isn’t the case here. Anyways thanks for reading :)


	3. Yachi-sensei

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Study time! The weekend has finally arrived, and Hinata and Yachi agreed to study at her house, but do we really expect them to get much studying done?

As usual, Nastu was up and at it well before Shoyo. It wasn’t that Shoyo had a terrible sleep schedule or anything, just that he slept a lot. Biking thirty minutes too and from school on top of intense volleyball practices took a lot out of Shoyo, even if he was used to it. His stamina was virtually endless until the second he hit the sack. Natsu on the other hand, went to elementary school in town, only a five minute walk away from the house. And even though she was very athletic, her escapades on the playground used significantly fewer calories than Shoyo did on a regular basis. 

It just so happened that today, however, Shoyo had made some plans without totally ironing out the details, and the person he had made those plans with was looking to do so. 

And now here Natsu was, one Saturday morning, staring at Shoyo’s phone ringing on his bedside table, all while its owner sleeps soundly, none the wiser. She contemplated shaking him awake, though, who knew if that was going to work, or if it was best to just let him wake up naturally. 

She went for the latter, thinking, I can just tell him what they wanted. She picked up the phone. Hitoka Yachi :)? Wonder who that is.

“Hello?”

“Hi, uh, Hinata?”

Natsu smiled to herself, a girl? Not everyday Shoyo talks to girls. She honestly expected his first romantic adventure to be with a volleyball, though she wouldn’t let this Yachi know she was thinking that, opting for a better reply.

“Everybody in this household is named Hinata.”

“Oh that’s right, Shoyo?”

“He’s unconscious right now.”

“Oh, sorry, I can call back later if tha一”

“If you need me to say anything to my brother then I can tell him after he get’s up. I wouldn’t bet on it being for another hour, though.”

“I see, I can just talk to you then, I suppose. Natsu, right?”

Oh? Now this was getting interesting, Natsu smiled, “Already introducing each other’s family are we? I didn’t realize you were so close.”

Natsu heard a soft gasp and then some ruffling, “It’s not like that! I was the one who asked him about you yesterday. Plus he didn’t say all that much about you. Only that you’re athletic like him, and you’re more of an otaku.”

“I AM NOT! JUST BECAUSE I HAVE ONE ASUNA FIGURE DOES NOT INSTANTLY MAKE ME AN OTAKU!” 

With that outburst, the previously unresponsive Shoyo lying on the bed started to rustle.

Natsu glared at the corpse lying under the sheets from where she was sitting.

Some light chuckling escaped Yachi’s lips, “You know he wasn’t that upset about it.”

“Really?”

“No. If anything, from talking to him it seemed like he was really proud of you. He was smiling the whole time while talking about you.”

“He was probably imagining this exact conversation.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him I was calling this early, or at all, in fact.”

“Why are you calling?”

“Oh, about that. Hinata and I agreed that he’d come over today so I can help him study. He seemed pretty enthusiastic, too.”

Natsu smirked, “This is the first time he’s going to a girls’ house.”

“I told you it’s not like that!”

“I’ll tell him you called and have him call you once he wakes up. I don’t want to get between Shoyo and his first girlfriend,” Natsu teased.

“Hey! Natsu!” *click* The call was ended.

The rustling behind Natsu told her that Yachi wouldn’t be waiting very long for her knight in shining armor to get back to her. 

Shoyo was never really one to oversleep. He always slept the exact amount his body needed. Nothing more. Nothing less. It’s not like his bed wasn’t very comfortable or anything, in fact it was astoundingly comfortable. It was just, he had better things to do than get more shut eye than he needed. And I’m sure one can guess that the “better things” he referred to was just lots and lots of volleyball.

It had been like that for years, so the Hinata family more or less just accepted it. If Shoyo was asleep, nothing would rouse him from his slumber. In the past, Natsu tried to have a little fun with him by trying to wake him up in increasingly ridiculous ways, but sadly that fun was put to a stop when the megaphone that she ‘borrowed’ from her elementary school ended up waking up her parents before Shoyo. 

So Natsu found it really funny that Shoyo woke up right as she ended her call with Yachi. She turned towards the mess that was Hinata Shoyo, taking a little bit of time to admire just how chaotically he slept.

Last night, thankfully, he still had enough energy to get ready for bed properly, but that didn’t necessarily mean he slept soundly. In fact, quite the opposite.

Even though Shoyo was small for your average volleyball player, he more than compensated in his ability to take up literally every corner of the bed. Natsu faintly recalled her mom describing a sleeping Shoyo as “looking like a body out of a crime scene”. Today was no different. He was sprawled across his bed like a starfish, with the covers not fully doing their job in covering his body. His head was just off the pillow, too, and his hair looked like it held so much static electricity that one might get electrocuted if they touched it.

Natsu decided this was a normal day. At least waking up, she added with a snicker.

The volleyball monster finally opened its eyes, “NNNNnnnnnnnn….!!!” There was another body in his room today, staring at him.

Natsu made her way closer to Shoyo’s bed, stopping about a foot away. They made eye contact for a few seconds without speaking, utter confusion plastered across Shoyo’s face.

“Shoyoooooooooooooooo! WAKE UP!” And with a shout, Natsu launched his phone square at his forehead. Her athletic experience and rock-skipping ability had finally come to good use, as the phone spun through the air.

Bullseye.

“NATSU! THE HELL!?” Shoyo covered his forehead, the redness already seeping in. From somewhere else in their house the both of them heard their mom cursing Shoyo’s foul language, using some very flowery language of her own. Neither Natsu nor Shoyo wanted to learn of the state of their rear ends after their mother’s description of the punishment she was gearing up to deliver.

“Sorry mom!” Shoyo shouted, “Natsu just surprised me!” She smiled at this. Whether it was just for his own self-preservation or not, Shoyo had rarely thrown Natsu under the bus, even when it was entire her own fault they were getting yelled at by their mom.

Shoyo glared at Natsu through his fingers, as his hands still protected his face, “Why did you do that Natsu? I’d barely woken up.”

Natsu contemplated teasing him about Yachi a bit, but decided she didn’t need to get on Shoyo’s bad side any more than she’d already gotten today. “Yachi called. I told her you were asleep.”

Shoyo looked down at the phone on the bed, lying next to his hip. Natsu watched as Shoyo changed at the mere mention of Yachi calling, dumb Shoyo got a girl. He dropped his hands from his face and grabbed his phone slowly, glancing up like Natsu was going to launch another high-speed projectile towards his skull.

“Call her fast Shoyo, she wanted to talk to you about studying.” 

And with that, Natsu felt her work was done. She turned her back to Shoyo, and walked out the door of his room, shutting it slowly so as not to anger their mom any more than she already had.

Shoyo watched her leave, and quickly opened his phone once the door had been fully shut. The most recent call was from Yachi, I guess Natsu wasn’t lying, he thought. It was only a few minutes prior, too. If he’d just woken up fifteen minutes earlier he wouldn’t have had that mess of a start to the day that Natsu had caused.

But now Natsu wasn’t on Shoyo’s mind, Yachi was. He pressed two buttons on his phone, and it was vibrating.

It only rang once.

“Shoyo?”

A small smile broke out on Shoyo’s face before he could stop it, “Shoyo you say?”

“I’m sorry! It’s just I talked to Natsu earlier and… well… y’know” Even without seeing her face, Shoyo could imagine how red it was getting. Shoyo just had to tease her some more.

“I’m not mad, Hitoooooooka”

“Hey!”

“Or should I call you Yachi-chan? Yacchan?”

“Y-you can call me whatever you want.”

Shoyo grinned.

“Yachi-sama”

“Anything but Yachi-sama”

“Then Yachi. After all we did only meet what, two, three days ago?”

Yachi sighed a bit, the red starting to fade from her face. If her mom had walked in at that point, she’d probably think Yachi was dying, or something like that. 

“I guess you’re right, though it’s not like we just introduced ourselves and left it at that.”

“I did bike you home”

I’m gonna turn into a tomato again.

“A-anyway, what should I call you. I can’t call you just Hinata.”

“Hinata-sama.”

“No.”

“Senpai?”

“When were you born?”

“June 21st”

“You’re older than me?!”

“You’re shorter than me.”

“Not fair.”

“Maybe I should call you Kouhai.”

“Anything but that.”

“Just call me Shoyo, what’s wrong with that?”

Yachi sighed to herself. I suppose a bunch of his volleyball teammates do call him that, plus Natsu does. If she let herself get more embarrassed she might pop a blood vessel.

“Shoyo it is, then.”

“Sweet! So, I heard from Natsu that you were asking about studying? Still free?”

“Yeah, all day as a matter of fact. Mom might have to leave for work close to dinnertime but we’ll see.”

“Awesome! So I can go over whenever? Want me to bring anything besides my schoolwork?”

“Ummm… I could really go for some pudding right about now.”

“You’ll have it an hour, sound good?”

“Sounds good.”

“See ya then!” *click*

And with that, Yachi had an hour to get the apartment ready for a Hinata Shoyo sized threat. And, of course, let her mother know.

That won’t be too hard, I guess.

Yachi walked out of her room and into the living room. There, her mom lounged on the couch, eyes focused on her laptop in front of her. Yachi stopped at the foot of the couch, where her mom could see her over the laptop screen.

“Hitoka?”

“One of my friends is coming over so I can help them study.”

“Ah I see. What’s their name?”

“Hinata Shoyo, a boy in the volleyball club.”

“Oh? A boy in the volleyball club you say?” Yachi’s mom’s mouth grew into a sly grin.

“It’s not like that!” Once again, Yachi’s face was turning into a tomato. At this point it was more common than her unembarrassed face.

“I see. I take it I can trust you then?” She raised her eyebrows, and Yachi felt her blush deepen (if that was even possible at this point). Yachi nodded furiously.

“You can!”

“Very well,” Yachi’s mom closed her laptop, “I suppose we need to clean this place up a bit then?” 

Almost exactly an hour and fifteen minutes later, Yachi heard her doorbell ring. Of course, she was sitting right next to the door, as she had been for the past half an hour, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that she heard it.

Her mom watched in bemused silence from behind the cover of her laptop. Over the past hour or so, a small smile had written itself all over her face, and she was trying hard not to let Yachi see it. Watching Yachi jump at the sound of the bell gave her a chuckle, too, though she decided that maybe it would be best for her to introduce herself when Hinata walked in. Closing her laptop quietly, she made her way over to the entrance.

Standing in the doorway was a boy who seemed a little small for a high school volleyball player, though it was already obvious that he more than made up for it in enthusiasm. His ruffled orange hair looked like an explosion coming out of his head, and his mouth was twisted into the biggest smile that she had ever seen.

“H-hello”

He looked down, clearly just realizing the situation he was in.

“I believe introductions are in order?” Yachi’s mom questioned.

Yachi perked up, taking the initiative, “Yes yes! Mom, this is Hinata Shoyo. And this is my mom.”

Hinata looked up to make eye contact with Yachi’s mom. His smile was infectious, and with a quick handshake, Yachi’s mom found herself unable to hide her smile anymore.

“Don’t hurt my baby, Hinata Shoyo,” she teased.

Hinata jumped at this a bit, “I would never!”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Have fun, you two. I’ll be in my room, Yachi.” And with that, Yachi’s mom turned and left the room.

“So, I brought all my school stuff and the pudding you asked for.”

“You know you didn’t need to bring the pudding, Shoyo.”

“Yeah but it’s just thanks for helping me study.” Hinata laughed a bit and rubbed the back of his head. Now the pair of them were starting to turn a faint shade of pink.

Unbeknownst to them, though, Yachi’s mom hadn’t entered her room yet. She hid around the corner, listening to her daughter’s conversation. “Shoyo, huh.” She smiled under her breath before finally entering her room and shutting the door

After grabbing spoons for the pudding, the duo made their way to Yachi’s room. 

Yachi and her mom’s apartment wasn’t terribly big, of course. The largest room was a combination of kitchen, dining room, and living room, where Yachi could do most everything in. The kitchen was pretty spacious, too, and with modern appliances it allowed Yachi to cook up a bunch of dishes for her and her mother. The living room was relatively modest, with only enough seating room for four, possibly five, guests. Enough for Yachi’s mom to entertain guests, but not really anything bigger than that.

Besides the main room, the apartment was split into a bath, a restroom, a laundry room, and then the two residents’ rooms. Yachi’s room was separated from her mom’s by the restroom, and she learned that she could make a fair bit of noise without being heard at night as a result (Or when studying). It’s not like she wanted to hide from her mom, but rather, she didn’t think her mom needed to hear everything in her life.

Yachi’s room itself was fairly quaint. Or at least, that’s how she’d describe it. The walls were painted a cream color, more yellow than white, and Yachi had bought shelves to match. The plain wood colors gave it a feel right out of an Ikea when it was completely clean, though Yachi didn’t mind. That was her space. The only place in the world where she could be 100% Hitoka. And here she was, showing it to Shoyo. For anyone else, she probably would have hesitated a lot more, but for some reason, seeing Shoyo made her think, maybe it’s okay to show him 100% Hitoka.

“Whoaaaaa!” Shoyo walked into the room, “It’s so much cleaner than mine!”

“Well I mean I did just clean it today..”

“And your door has hinges!”

“H-hinges?”

“Yeah, my house is a lot more traditional Japanese, so we have sliding doors.”

“That makes more sense…”

Shoyo walked over to Yachi’s bed and sat down, a soft thump, emanating from the covers. Yachi watched him, unsure of exactly what to say.

“Yachiii, what are we studying today?”

“I was thinking English today. After all, that’s what you scored worst on, right?”

“That’s because English sucks.”

Yachi covered her mouth while she snickered. She took a step towards the bed and awkwardly sat next to Shoyo, grabbing her study materials off of the shelf adjacent to her.

“I can’t argue with that, but you still need to pass it to go to Tokyo, right?”

Shoyo hung his head, “Right…”

“Anyway, what did you guys work on in class this week?”

“Irregular verbs.”

“Understood, let’s get started!”

“Yes! Yachi-sensei!”

All things considered, Shoyo was the perfect student. His drive to learn English was admirable, and he wasn’t afraid to ask for more help on his work. As well as that, Yachi was amazed at how quickly he caught on to English. I wonder, if he applied himself to school like this all the time, I think he’d be an excellent student.

“Hey Shoyo”

“Yes, Yachi-sensei?”

Yachi punched him softly in the side, “I told you, just call me Yachi.” Shoyo rubbed the back of his head and looked at Yachi.

Eye contact.

Even if it was just for a second or two, both of their faces heated up, and the room grew a bit heavier.

Not wanting things to become awkward, Yachi spoke up, “A-anyway, why don’t you work this hard during school? You’re really good at this so I don’t know why you’d need me to help study.”

Shoyo laughed a bit, “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Yachi, you’re a good teacher. Also, I spend most of my time daydreaming in school.”

He looked down at his hands, resting on the notebook in his lap. Yachi followed his gaze.

Shoyo wiggled his fingers aimlessly, as if just realizing he had five on each hand. They were growing calloused from the weeks of training without stop. It didn’t bother Yachi, though it’s not like she’s held hands with a boy before, but she wondered if it bothered Shoyo. After all, Shoyo felt like the type of person that would get bothered by even the smallest little details, at least to Yachi. But it seemed like they weren’t totally on the same wavelength.

“I spend most of my time thinking about what I’m gonna do during practice everyday. Sensei yells at me for staring off in the distance a lot.” Hinata laughed softly and put his hand on the back of his head.

“You must think about volleyball a lot. Every class?” Yachi’s eyes widened a little.

“Well yeah,” Hinata said. He dropped his arms to the bed below him, leaning back onto his elbows, “Ever since I watched Karasuno play that day, I’ve been playing volleyball nonstop.”

She recalled his story from earlier.

“Do you want to play beyond high school?”

“Till I die.”

Again, a silence washed over the pair, though it wasn’t uncomfortable like before. 

“Where do you want to be in the future, Yachi?”

“Oh,” Yachi put her head down for a second, then matched Shoyo’s stance, with her elbows on the bed, “I haven’t given it too much thought, if I’m being honest. I guess, I’m hoping that high school will point me in the right direction. I want to find something that will make me happy more than just money, for sure. It’s not like we’re poor or anything right now. It’s just the two of us, mom and me, so we don’t have that many expenses. Mom likes the apartment because it’s smaller and easier to clean, and like…”

Yachi paused for a little bit, sighing, “I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t want anything too ambitious. I want something that makes me happy, and pays the bills. And gives me the free time to do what I want, you know? I want to be able to make memories all my life. I don’t want to waste away my years stuck in a terrible job.”

Yachi found herself spacing out staring at the ceiling. What would my future hold? Maybe at her mother’s work? It probably wouldn’t be too difficult to get a job there, as her mom practically runs the place. I guess I shouldn’t worry too much about it. After all, I am just a first year in high school right? 

Maybe two years down the line she’d still be working as the manager for the volleyball team. Would she really be able to think about her future when she’d be dealing with the volleyball team’s antics? If Shoyo and Kageyama stayed as crazy as they were during the past few days, she wouldn’t be surprised if the volleyball club took up most of her brain power everyday. 

The creaking of Yachi’s bed shook her out of her daydream. She turned to her left, only to see two eyes staring into her soul.

“S-shoyo?” Yachi leaned away from the orange-haired boy’s gaze.

He jumped back, flustered, “Sorry! I was just thinking, you say you haven’t, but you really have spent a lot of time thinking about this, huh?”

“Well, I still don’t know where I want to be, so everytime I think about my future, I have a lot to think about, you know?”

Shoyo brought his feet up onto the bed, crossing them over another. He continued to look at her, as though scrutinizing every syllable she had ever spoken.

“What is it, Shoyo?”

He blinked, as if he didn’t even realize he was still staring.

“I-It’s nothing.” He looked away, with his cheeks a little pinker than they were before.

Yachi sighed, smiling a little at the strange boy that sat on her bed. He’s a lot more tame when he’s not playing volleyball. Yachi thought to herself, I could get used to this side of Shoyo. With that thought, heat rose through her face, Or maybe not.

“Let’s get back to studying. Maybe we should move onto math?”

Shoyo replied with a grin, “Understood, Yachi-sensei.”

Refocused, Yachi and Shoyo began to study their math notebooks. Even still, not every percent of brain power on either side was being focused wholly to studying. Each side devoted a fraction of their brain power to the other, though neither would ever admit it, of course.

Over time though, their minds melted into the yellows of Yachi’s room. Despite Shoyo being a total stranger to Yachi just a few days ago, at this point in time, the boy sitting beside her on her bed seemed to fit in her room perfectly. His Orange complimented her Yellows. It wasn’t just her room that Shoyo fit into. Yachi felt comfortable with him beside her. It almost felt safer. This calm, focused version of Shoyo was something she could get used to, though, of course, she would never admit that.

For an hour or so they stayed like this, basking in each others’ presence. It was getting late though, and the warm feeling wouldn’t last forever.

*brrrrrrrrrringgggg*

An alarm on Shoyo’s phone dragged both of them from studying.

“It’s 6:30, so I should probably think about going,” Shoyo half said, half mumbled.

Yachi tried not to look so sad about the thought of Shoyo leaving, even if he had been there for hours. She still had one more thing to get done while Shoyo was at her apartment, though. 

“One last thing before you go, thought.”

Shoyo turned to Yachi with a smile plastered on his face, “Anything for sensei.”

“Can you help me convince my mom to let me join the volleyball club? Officially?”

“What do you two need?”

Yachi and Shoyo stood outside of her mother’s door, shoulder to shoulder, essentially blocking her mother’s escape. To Yachi’s mom’s right was her daughter, looking more confident than she’d seen in a very long time. To her left, was the short volleyball player who was studying with her daughter (I suppose short is a little rude, since he is taller than Hitoka. Although it’s not very hard to be taller than her… Yachi’s mom thought to herself). He looked a lot more nervous, so she suspected that Yachi had dragged him along with her, probably for moral support.

Yachi took a deep breath before blurting out, “Please let me join the volleyball club. I know I might not be much, but they need a new manager since Kiyoko is gonna be gone at the end of this year!”

Yachi’s mom smiled to herself. She’s really passionate about this. She put her hands on her hips, pretending to contemplate her daughter’s proposition. I’m not really in any position to refuse, am I? I think she’ll be happy doing this, honestly. “Okay, you can join.”

“B一wait really?”

Yachi’s mom laughed, “Did you think I would say no?” Yachi looked down at her feet, curling and uncurling her toes with anxiety.

“Well, kinda…”

“You’re passionate about this, I can tell. I don’t think anything I’d say would stop you from joining.”

She turned to face Shoyo, “Take care of my daughter in Tokyo, okay?”

Much to her bemusement, the boy’s face reddened, “Th-that’s if I pass all my exams!”

“Well with my daughter teaching you, if you don’t, then that would be a grave offense, you know.”

“Y-yes ma’am!”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I do have a meeting to go to. So, sorry, Hinata, but I don’t fully trust you to be home alone with my daughter yet.” With that statement, she gave a quick wink, and made her way past the pair, heading towards the door. 

Even though she couldn’t see the two’s faces, she was sure she felt the temperature in the room rise a degree.

“N-not a problem, ma’am, I’m leaving, too!”

Shoyo grabbed his bag from the floor next to him, walking in the same direction towards the exit. Out of courtesy, Yachi, now very very pink in the face, followed her guest to the exit.

Despite being almost a tomato, Yachi couldn’t help but smile. I couldn’t have asked for much more, huh?

Before closing the door, Shoyo looked back at Yachi.

“I’ll be seeing you, manager.”

With that, the door closed.

Yachi found herself releasing a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. For some reason, she felt that sleep would come to her easier tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do apologize if my knowledge of the level of English taught to first year high school students in Japan is bad. I can’t say I’ve ever been to Japan, much less taught English to first-year Japanese students. I just thought about something that wasn’t too basic, but was still rather important to English as a whole, so I used irregular verbs.


	4. Exams Exams Exams!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a little bit of deliberation, I decided that it’s probably not a great idea to change too much about the actual canon here, since I do want to mostly follow it, and thus Hinata’s interactions with Yachi and Kageyama during the actual Training Camp (which wouldn’t happen in this chapter anyways but letting yk) won’t be changed. I feel they were important enough to the story that not having them happen would prevent Karasuno from beating Aoba Johsai towards the end of season 2 (also by canon I mean anime canon, sorry guys. I might make a few references to Haikyuu-bu here and there, but this won’t follow the manga, unless I catch up with the anime timeline-wise).

Karasuno High School stands near the summit of a large hill, overlooking its accompanying city below. At night, you can see the lights from Sendai, a few miles away, lighting up the sky. After some pretty rambunctious baseball games with Shiratorizawa’s team years prior, the school adopted the title “The Crow’s Nest”, which the students wore with honor.

Despite not being the best school at, well, anything really, the students were overflowing with pride. Three years ago, the basketball team made it all the way to the Miyagi Prefectural Finals, and some of the more popular third years gathered a crowd at the game. Before the first quarter had even ended, they were getting noise complaints, and by the end of the game, every single Karasuno supporter was thrown out of the gymnasium. The basketball team wasn’t allowed to have any spectators for the next tournament, though a few would always manage to sneak in every game, just to rile up the other team’s fans. 

Pretty soon, the squad of Karasuno supporters got a nickname, “The Murder”. While it sounded pretty badass, the group themselves was mostly harmless. The worst that ever happened was a particularly noisy second year who found herself in the hospital needing stitches after a rival fan tossed a tuba. 

But in school, they were often a good group of kids. Most of the faculty was perfectly content with working at the school. And although they would never tell the vice principal, sometimes they would brag to their friends over drinks that they worked at Karasuno.

One author, an alumni, once wrote in his memoir that, “Karasuno is the school where your high school dream comes true. Where your fantasies become your reality.” Of course, if you asked any Karasuno teacher, they would most likely interrupt you halfway through the quote to finish it. Their rather eccentric vice principal liked to remind them of the quote a little bit too often.

Upon entering the man’s office, you would probably snap your eyes to the many trophies adorning the shelves from over the years. It wasn’t a very big trophy case, with the newest item in it being a gleaming Trophy that read Boy’s Volleyball Miyagi Prefectural Champions 2008. 

After the trophy case, your eyes would wander around the room, where nearly every square inch wallspace was coated in some medium coveting the school named Karasuno. The biggest item, a framed newspaper from 2011, when a foreign journalist had come to the school to learn what made Karasuno so special.

Nestled in the mountains of Japan, north of Tokyo, in Miyagi Prefecture, is a public high school called Karasuno. At first, you might think that the location of the school is out of the way, unnecessary, and a waste of energy, but that is precisely what makes this school special.

It’s said that years ago, students would sneak onto the school’s rooftop at New Year’s to watch the first sunrise. They got caught, of course, but the student body petitioned against the students being expelled, and soon it became tradition for the students to watch the first sunrise from the School’s roof.

Walking along through the school grounds, it’s easy to see why this school was described as the place where fantasies become reality. In the spring, the drive up to the school is a cloud of pink, as the sakura blossoms snow down onto the road.

Every student and every teacher you talk to tells me first that they are proud to tell others that they go to Karasuno, and I feel that if I was in their shoes, I really would feel the same way.

Finally, there was the vice principal’s prized possession, a bronze crow, standing proud on its mount. It gleamed when the light hit it just right, filling the room with a shining glow, almost like the sun. 

A rumor went around the school after one of the teachers temporarily lost their eyesight while going to ask the vice principal about that year’s budget, that the man took better care of his bronze bird than he did of himself. Though, it’s unclear whether that’s a dig at how much he takes care of the bird or how little he takes care of himself.

The bright pinks of spring have faded from the grounds of Karasuno now, occupied by a sea of green. From the clouds, the mountains surrounding the school might be mistaken for moss covered rocks. A month earlier, the road leading to Karasuno appeared to be covered in a coat of snow. On the windiest days, petals floated around the students as they walked to and from school.

Hinata Shoyo was not the type of person to take in his surroundings, and the early morning glint of the sun, reflected into his eyes from the windows of the main building had started to become the slightest bit annoying.

Of course, it’s not like Hinata could complain. He was a Karasuno High volleyball player, and a damn fucking good one at that. But everything hinged on his scores in exams.

Surprisingly, he felt best with English. Yachi had spent a lot of time working on everything with him, and he could now hold a whole conversation with her over the phone, even if he’d get something wrong here or there. Yachi told him she was amazed at how he’d improved fast, though deep down she worried if telling him that would make him too overconfident and fail the test.

It wasn’t a long walk to his homeroom, as the bike rack was right next to the school’s side entrance, where the stairs led right up to his classroom. In the past, it meant that he could arrive as late as possible and still make it for attendance.

But today, he was at Karasuno fairly early, though not totally of his own desire. He felt confident enough with his English exam, all thanks to Yachi, but as a result of studying so much English, they’d not studied the other subjects as much, which worried him.

On nights before big tests, Hinata would never get much sleep. It was hard to fall asleep, and way to easy to wake up. Last night, he spent what felt like hours, tossing and turning, going over every question once, twice, three times.

The English translations weren’t terribly difficult, he decided. Just some news article about penguins. But math was a different story. A whole section was totally unknown to him. Yachi had never gone over it with him, and knowing Hinata, he probably slept through it in class. He just had to hope that he made up for it in other areas.

Hinata wasn’t the only first year volleyball player who had to worry about passing his exams. Kageyama had begged Yamaguchi to help him study, behind the back of Tsukishima. Of course, Tsukishima found out rather quickly, but believe it or not, he did not care in the slightest. Yamaguchi wasn’t a great teacher, especially to Kageyama, who wasn’t exactly the type to learn anything new, but somehow they got to a point where Yamaguchi was confident he would fail EVERY exam.

And it just so happened that today the pair of worrywarts had arrived at school early. 

“Kageyamaaaaaaaaa!” The boy looked up. Running towards him was the walking tangerine that was Hinata Shoyo.

“Why are you here so early” Kageyama grumbled.

The orange haired boy stopped a few feet away from Kageyama, and together they more or less blocked the side entrance into the building. He had been leaning against the threshold of the entrance for a while, not wanting to go to his classroom just yet, so th anxiety wouldn’t kick in.

“I woke up way too early this morning and had nothing better to do. I was just so anxious about getting my exams back. What about you?”

Kageyama shifted his stance a little, so that he wasn’t leaning on the threshold, “Same thing I guess. Yamaguchi told me that I wouldn’t fail a single exam but the questions were rigged against me.”

“You studied with Yamaguchi?”

Kageyama looked at the tangerine, “Well yeah, didn’t you study with him, too, after Tsukishima told us he wouldn’t teach us?”

Hinata stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest, looking awfully smug, “I got Yachi to help me!”

“Isn’t that the girl Kiyoko’s been bringing to practice everyday? What’s the deal with her?”

“Don’t you remember? She’s becoming assistant manager. She’ll take over once Kiyoko graduates.”

Kageyama looked at the clouds passing overhead absentmindedly, “I guess another one wouldn’t hurt.”

Hinata uncrossed his arms, and started walking through the entrance into the school, “Yachi’s super passionate about the club, too! She offered to help Kiyoko make fliers to raise some funds for the club!”

Kageyama looked down at Hinata, “Are they good?”

“Crazy Good! Yachi’s a really good artist!”

Kageyama followed Hinata into the school, and they made their way upstairs to the first year classrooms. They stopped in front of the first one, Kageyama’s class. Hinata turned around to look at Hinata, cocking his head to the side slightly.

Kageyama sighed, “You better not have failed a single exam.”

Hinata frowned, “I could say the same thing about you, dumbass.”

“Who are you calling a dumbass, dumbass!”

“I’m not the one that failed to get into Shiratorizawa!”

Kageyama took a step towards Hinata, fists waving in the air, “Dumbass Hina一”

Someone coughed behind the pair, and the two of them whirled towards the voice, fists only inches from each others’ collars. The pair’s English teacher, Ono-sensei, stood at the end of the hall, a pile of papers as tall as her torso in hand.

“First of all, no fighting in the hallway, you two. It’s way too early for me to deal with this. Second of all, help me carry all this, and maybe I won’t tell anybody what you guys were doing.”

The pair glanced at each other, swallowing in perfect sync, “Yes, sensei.”

The three of them walked down the hall in silence, a large stack of papers in each of their arms.

After a bit, Ono-sensei broke the silence, “Say, Hinata, how did you get so good at English?”

Hinata beamed, “I had Yachi teach me!”

“Hitoka, huh? She’s really good at English, wonder how you convinced her to teach you.”

“Hitoka? You call her by her given name?”

“Yeah I was good friends with her mother in college. She’s really busy these days though so we don’t talk all that often anymore, but her parent-teacher conference was probably the longest, albeit not because we were discussing Hitoka’s education… That aside, you know Hitoka?” Ono-sensei looked towards the boy walking to her left. It wasn’t very hard to notice his reaction to her question. He looked down, his face flushing slightly pink.

“Yachi’s joining the boys volleyball club as a manager, but she needed help convincing her mom, so I helped with that, and then she started teaching me.”

Ono-sensei smiled, “That does sound like something Yachi would do. She’s always been overly cautious about what Hitoka gets herself into.”

“How so?” Hinata looked at his teacher confused.

“Maybe she feels really protective after having to care for her alone for so long? Though nowadays she can take care of herself just fine, I’m sure.”

Hinata looked like he wanted to ask more questions about the Yachi family, but before he could open his mouth, they’d arrived at Ono-sensei’s room.

“Thanks, you two,” Ono-sensei started, “I think I’ll let you off the hook this time, mostly because I don’t want to deal with the vice principal anymore than I have to. But don’t do it again, got it?”

The two boys stood up straight, saluting their sensei, as if military privates, “Understood!”

Ono-sensei closed the door to her room, but before Hinata and Kageyama could get anywhere, they heard a call from down the hall, “You two!”

Takeda-sensei ran towards them, out of breath by the time he reached the two. It was clear he hadn’t gotten that much sleep, as his hair somehow looked even more discheviled than usual, and his clothes were clearly put on very tiredly. Not to mention, the bags under his eyes were much more pronounced than usual, making him seem almost like a ghoul.

Hinata was the first to speak, while Takeda-sensei was still catching his breath, “You don’t look so good sensei.”

The man looked up, sweating, and readjusted his glasses, “This is by no means the worst I’ve ever been. And you two, you’re here early, how did the exams go?”

Hinata smiled brightly, while Kageyama shifted uncomfortably beside him, messing with his bangs, “Ono-sensei told me I was really good at English, but besides that I think the rest I did fine on!”

Takeda-sensei nodded and looked at his setter, who mumbled, “Fine, I guess.”

“So long as you two don’t fail that’s all I care about. Otherwise you won’t be able to go to Tokyo, remember?”

Hinata and Kageyama sighed, “We know.”

Takeda-sensei chuckled a bit, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find Nishikata-sensei. Apparently he’s going on paternity leave soon, since his wife is pregnant.”

“Oooo,” Hinata looked enthused, “Tell him I said congrats!”

Takeda-sensei walked away from the two calling behind his back, “Will do!”

Kageyama looked at Hinata, “Nishikata-sensei?”

“One of the P.E. teachers.”

“Oh.”

Besides Hinata and Kageyama, the only other members of the volleyball club who were at risk of failing were Nishinoya and Tanaka, the powerhouses of the second years. Coming early didn’t seem to work for them, though, as they had both unceremoniously stayed up until 2 am fantasizing about Kiyoko complementing their excellent grades on the exams.

And so, about five minutes before the first period was due to start, the shortest player on the volleyball team waddled into the building, bags hanging under his eyes like rain gutters. He almost looked inhuman, with how bloodshot his eyes had become. It was amazing that he had made it to school at all, though he had the assistance of a few energy drinks to keep him going, plus the motivation of seeing Kiyoko.

His second year classroom was situated right above Kageyama’s, on the third floor, much to the teacher’s disdain, as Kageyama’s class had a tendency to be a bit rowdy.

Besides it’s location, there wasn’t much else notable to Nishinoya about the class. None of the other second year volleyball players were in it, though Kikuchi and Sudou from the girls team were there. None of the girls in his class were any cute either (at least when compared to Kiyoko, that is), except for maybe that one time when Kikuchi wore makeup as a dare. Nishinoya had to refrain from asking her to insult him for a whole six hours of the school day.

When he did reach the classroom, he collapsed into his seat like a bag of rocks, eyelids immediately closing, as he lay his head on the desk.

“You look dead”

“Shut it Sudou.”

Sudou, sitting to his left, looked at him with a smile on her face. She was taller than Nishinoya. A fact that she pointed out more often than Nishinoya would like (Though Nishinoya would always rebuke that she was still shit at volleyball). They had a relationship a little bit more than classmates but a little bit less than friends. Nishinoya was her go to boy in the class, (though if anyone besides Kikuchi mentioned that fact they’d find a rather large bruise in their future) and they’d frequently talk about volleyball together.

Kikuchi would always try to eek out just a little bit more dirt on the pair of them, as her seat was on the opposite side of class, so she couldn’t really join in on their conversations, but Sudou wouldn’t spill any tea (Although Kikuchi did note a slightly pink Sudou).

All things considered, today would be a very rough day for Nishinoya.

The door to classroom slid open, and the din died down a little bit with the introduction of a new presence.

“Ah, Nishinoya!”

The boy looked up from his desk at the new voice. Takeda-sensei stood at the front of the class, holding a few papers in his hand with a smile on his face.

Nishinoya sat up in his chair, “Takeda-sensei?”

“You’ll be happy to know you’ve passed at least one exam. Though you really should work on your Japanese Literature.”

He made his way to the student, and placed the exam on his desk.

68\. By no means a failing grade, but it wouldn’t do him any wonders in the academic world.

Sudou stood behind him, looking over Nishinoya’s shoulder as he looked over his exam, and snorted when she saw the score.

“You’re just as bad at growing as you are at Japanese Literature.”

Nishinoya leaned back in his chair, looking up at the girl so she appeared upside down in his vision, “Say that again once you get your exam back with a 40.”

Takeda-sensei cleared his throat and began shuffling through his stack of papers, “Actually Sudou did rather well on her exam, I believe. Ah! Here we are.”

He produced the paper from close to the bottom of the pile, and handed it over to the girl. She looked at the score, trying to contain her laughter. Nishinoya frowned, trying to read her score through the paper.

“Hey Nishinoya, you’re just as bad at growing as you are at Japanese Literature.”

“What did you get?”

Sudoku turned the paper around, letting Nishinoya see the 83 written in red in the right hand corner of the paper.

“Oh fuck’s sake”

Takeda-sensei stiffened, “Language, Nishinoya.”

“Sorry sensei.”

Takeda-sensei looked at his watch, “I need to get to my own classroom for homeroom, but Nishinoya, you should be happy to know that Tanaka passed his Japanese Literature exam as well.” And with that, he rushed out of the class.

Nishinoya called after him, “Thanks sensei! And maybe fix your hair before homeroom!”

Sudou slapped her paper against the top of Nishinoya’s head, getting his attention again, “Your club advisor is quite the character, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Nishinoya laughed, “But he managed to convince Coach to join, and it’s all thanks to him that we’re able to go to Tokyo.”

Sudou sighed, “I wish our team was as good as yours.”

“Half of you guys don’t even practice everyday.”

“Not for Michimiya’s lack of trying!”

“It’s because you don’t have Japan’s best middle school libero on your team like we do.”

“I thought you were just the best in Miyagi.”

“Technicalities Shmechnicalities.”

By the time the day had ended, all of the students had gotten back their exams.

It’s safe to say most of the volleyball team was made up of excellent students. Daichi, Asahi, and Kiyoko all ranked in the top 30% of their class, with Sugawara a little bit behind in the top 50%. Ennoshita and Kinoshita were not slacking much either, bothing nabbing the top 20% of their grade. And for the first years, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi seemed almost disappointed being in the top 10% of the class.

Yachi herself was not terribly worried about her own exams that much, with her lowest grade being a 79 (though her mom would have something to say about that low grade being two points below what it had been in the previous exam). She was more worried about Hinata and Kageyama’s exams.

As she made her way towards Hinata’s homeroom, she spotted Yamaguchi, walking shoulder to shoulder with Tsukishima, the two of them in deep conversation.

Yachi walked up to them, “Hey Yamaguchi what was your lowest grade?”

Yamaguchi looked at the girl a tad bit confused by her question, “An 83 in English why do you ask?”

Yachi swore under her breath, “My lowest was a 79.”

Behind Yamaguchi, she heard Tsukishima snicker to himself. He muttered, “Maybe if you weren’t tutoring that tangerine idiot you’d have gotten a better grade.”

Yamaguchi turned to his friend, “Tsuki! Hinata needed to pass in order to go to Tokyo remember? Yachi helped with that.”

“Not my problem.”

Yachi huffed, “What was your lowest then, Tsukishima?”

He turned to her, a sly grin on his face and said, “And 89,” before turning and continuing on his way.

Over his shoulder he called, “Let’s go Tadashi, I don’t want to miss the sale on Yakisoba bread.”

Yamaguchi hurriedly followed Tsukishima through the halls. For a few moments, Yachi wondered how Yamaguchi could deal with Tsukishima’s personality, but quickly decided that was just his superpower.

She arrived at the door to Hinata’s classroom and looked inside. In one of the seats closest to the window, Hinata sat, gazing out over the baseball field below him. Yachi stealthily made her way over to the boy, keeping out of his line of sight. Hinata turned his head to look at the entrance of the classroom where Yachi had been standing a few moments before. Now she stood almost right beside him, struggling to prevent a giggle from escaping her lips.

“Didn’t Yachi say she’d come to my classroom right after the final class? Where is she?”

Yachi cautiously stepped forward, until she was standing only a few inches behind Hinata, and crouched down so her face was level with his. She leaned to hover just over his left shoulder, while her right arm snaked to just above his right arm. 

With her pointer finger, she poked his right arm softly, eliciting a jump from the boy. He looked over his right shoulder, before turning to his left and nearly jumping out of his chair. Yachi collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter.

“You fuckin’ scared me Yachi! How long were you there?”

In between laughs, Yachi managed to get out, “Since you said, ‘I wonder where Yachi is.’”

She looked at the boy, noticing a red color sweep over his face.

“A-anyways, I passed all of my exams!” Hinata stood up quickly, reaching for the papers on his desk. Yachi got up as well, dusting off her skirt before looking at Hinata’s exams, too.

As expected, English was his best exam by a longshot. Yachi beamed with pride to see a large 86 written on his paper. The others weren’t the worst, though they weren’t anything to be all that proud of. Still, every exam had been passed, and it was clear Hinata had put a lot of effort into them. Despite knowing how much he had improved since she’d started teaching him, Yachi was still extremely impressed by how good his scores were.

Before she could congratulate him, though, Kageyma ran through the door, as if he’d been looking for Hinata for a while.

“Hinata what grades did you get?” He asked.

Hinata looked at the setter with a huge smile on his face and his hands on his hips, as if he had just been announced as the new prime minister, “I passed every single exam with flying colors. Read these scores and weep.”

Kageyama walked over to Hinata’s desk, his own exams in hand, and looked over Hianta’s exams.

“Holy shit your English score.”

Hinata laughed. Yachi thought to herself, ‘he really is living up to his name.’

Kageyama sighed, “I passed all of my exams but just barely. Yamaguchi wasn’t that great of a tutor.”

“Well I had Yachi tutoring me, she’s awesome.”

Kageyama turned to the girl, “Please tutor me, I need all the help I can get.”

Yachi didn’t really know what to say, but didn’t really see any reason to say no, “I mean, sure why not?” She looked over to Hinata, who was looking away, though his smile from a few seconds before seemed to have morphed into a pout.

The three of them made their way over towards the club room, betting on whether or not Tanaka and Nishinoya would pass their exams. Yachi, of course, expected them to pass every exam with flying colors, since they’d be so motivated to go to Tokyo. Kageyama thought that both of them would pass all but one exam and then have to retake it the next day, and then have Tanaka’s sister drive them to Tokyo. Finally, Hinata believed that Tanaka and Nishinoya would pass all of their exams, and credit their success solely to Kiyoko’s existence, and not Ennoshita and Kinoshita who tutored them.

While climbing the stairs to the second floor of the clubs building, they heard a shout. Ennoshita was totally baffled, “How did you pass every exam? You’re both idiots!”

Yachi, Hinata, and Kageyama tiptoed towards the door, pressing their ears up against it.

“I don’t know what you mean Chikara, Ryu and I are not the smartest kids in school.” It was Nishinoya’s voice.

Kinoshita snorted, “Your highest grade was a 73.”

“Still passed every exam!”

“And that’s what baffles me. How did you do it?” Ennoshita wondered, “You didn’t know anything while we were studying!”

“After you left, Nishinoya and I spent 2 hours praying to our Kiyoko shrine that we’d pass the exams. It is thanks to her divine good will that we are able to be here today, Amen.”

“YOU HAVE A SHRINE TO KIYOKO?!?”

Behind the door, Hinata couldn’t contain his laughter anymore, “I win! I win! They’re so fucking… oh my god!” 

The three of them collapsed into a fit of giggles outside of the room, unable to form sentences between their laughs. Before they could finish laughing, the door opened, and some rather confused second years poked their heads out of the room.

Kinoshita started, “You guys okay?”

The first years were still rolling on the ground with laughter, but Kageyama managed to get out, “Y-you have… SHRINE for Kiyoko! AAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Tanaka and Nishinoya turned slightly pink, and glanced at each other. In sync, they started, “It was his idea not mine.”

Before an all out brawl between the two Simps could break out, the third years entered the fray.

“Break it up you two, it’s a day off from practice, so I don’t want you guys doing anything major. Just rest up.”

Hinata and Kageyama both opened their mouth, about to bring up rejection, but Daichi shut them up with a glare. Sugawara stepped forwards, looking between Hinata, Kageyama, and the Simps, “Did you guys pass all of your exams?”

A resounding, “Yup!” surprised Sugawara. His jaw dropped to the floor, and he walked over to Yachi, putting his hands on either of her shoulders, “How did you do it?”

Yachi, startled, took a step back while waving her hands in front of her face, “I only tutored Shoyo, and he’s a good studier so it was easy!” Sugawara smiled, before sighing.

He turned to the other three idiots, “And how did you pass? Who tutored you?”

“Yamaguchi.”

“Kiyoko.”

“I did no such thing.”

“Not physically, anyway.”

“At this point I don’t even want to know.”

For third-years, this was the last High School exam that mattered. After these, it would be all about getting into college through their own entrance exams, or entering the workforce with a job, so for the third-years of the Boy’s Volleyball team, a weight had been lifted off their shoulders that they didn’t even realize they were carrying.

The group made their way through the town to celebrate. Since they were given a day off from practice, they were out of school a lot earlier than usual, which made the streets seem almost a little unfamiliar at that time of day. But they still knew the way to Ukai’s store, after all, it wasn’t that often that they were able to get to the store before the meat buns sold out.

“I can’t believe Asahi managed to get into the top 30% this year. Did you sell your soul for good grades or something?”

Asahi laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, “Well, when I quit the volleyball team, I didn’t really have much to do other than study, so…”

Daichi laughed, “I think Suga’s jealous he’s now the worst third year on the volleyball team.”

Kiyoko nodded, “Maybe on the boys team, but did you see Michimiya failed one of her exams?”

Daichi looked surprised, “Aw, so that’s why she wouldn’t show her scores to me. I kind of feel bad, though. Michimiya’s been working so hard with the volleyball team that I guess it sorta reflected in her grades. She’s not usually such a poor student.”

Sugawara cocked his head in thought, “It’s a shame that the team doesn’t seem to be as devoted to the sport as she is. We all know how much that team means to her.”

The group kept walking in silence towards Ukai’s store. It was maybe a five minute walk entirely downhill, as the store was located in the city below the mountain Karasuno resided on. Many students frequented the location right after exams, which Ukai was happy to accommodate. He was relatively popular with the students, too, being a former Karasuno high student after all. 

Before taking on his coaching job, Ukai would spend a lot of time talking to the Karasuno high school students about his time at school. Many of the third-years saw him as a saint, for saying things about some of the teachers that they could only dream of saying. Of course, there was only a handful of teachers still at the school from when Ukai was there, but his stories about teachers long gone would always entertain the students.

They neared the store, talking quietly about questions on the exam, unaware of a pair of bodies sitting on the steps outside of the store. Before getting too close, though, Kiyoko noticed, dragging the rest of the third years with her behind one of the buildings. Sugawara struggled out of her grasp, “What the Shimu一”

“Shut up for a second,” Kiyoko hissed back, before poking her head around the corner, eyeing the pair sitting on the steps.

Daichi whispered, “What is it Kiyoko?”

“Hinata and Yachi.”

Daichi smiled, “Kiyoko’s becoming a matchmaker? And what are we, eavesdroppers?”

“They look like their having fun,” Kiyoko pouted.

The four of them peeked their heads around the corner, observing the action in front of them.

Hinata and Yachi sat on the steps outside of the store, holding ice creams. They seemed to be deep in conversation about the exams, though the third-years hadn’t heard the start of the conversation.

“Yeah, so drink is one of those weird words that doesn’t work the way you except it to. Knowing that now, what do you think the past tense would be, Shoyo?”

Asahi whispered, ‘she called him Shoyo,’ and the third-years all snickered softly.

“Drank?”

“Good. I think that’s everything you got wrong on the English exam.”

“I still can’t believe you got a 96 on it. And even then the two you got wrong were just easy mistakes.”

Yachi laughed, and finished off her ice cream before continuing, “My mom needs to speak English sometimes for work, so I have a lot of experience with it outside of school. Every once in a while we’ll try to talk in only English at dinner, though she knows a lot more words than I do.”

“You get a headstart on the class then.”

“I guess you could call it that. Thanks for today.”

“No problem, this is thanks for tutoring me so much and me passing my exams,” Hinata rubbed the back of his neck.

Yachi smiled and stood up, hands flooded behind her back. Hinata followed suit, dusting off his pants. He looked up at the girl, “Need a ride home, again?”

Yachi waved her hands in front of her face, a faint blush rising onto her face, “No, no. Thanks though. I don’t want you to bike so much. After all it is supposed to be a rest day.”

He sighed, as if disappointed by the idea of resting, “True, I’m gonna go then.”

Hinata grabbed his bike, which had been leaning against a telephone pole a few feet away, before looking back at Yachi, who was watching him, “See you tomorrow Yachi! Don’t stay up too late!”

Yachi smiled at the boy, “I could say the same to you, See ya!”

She waved at Hinata before turning and walking the opposite direction. The third-years, still hiding behind a nearby building, waited until the two were out of sight before leaving their hiding spot. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before breaking out into smiles.

“Oh my god,” Daichi started, “I didn’t realize Hinata was capable of being so polite!”

Kiyoko laughed, “They have a lot of influence on each other I think. It’s good to see. Apparently Hinata was one of the big reasons that Yachi was able to convince her mom to join the volleyball club, and she seems to like him.”

They made their way into the store, chatting about the first-years’ antics. Ukai looked up from the register, a bit surprised to see them.

“You, too?” he asked.

The third-years nodded. “We didn’t want to interrupt Hinata and Yachi, so we waited until they left,” Kiyoko explained. 

Ukai responded with a laugh, “Since when did you four become so accommodating? I didn’t know those two were so close.”

“We didn’t either,” Asahi said, “But it’s good to have another manager for after Kiyoko graduates.”

Kiyoko nodded. “And having a good relationship with the team is important,” she said, and slapped Daichi on the back hard. He looked to complain, but after eyeing Kiyoko’s bright smile, he decided against it.

“If you guys want meat buns, they’re on me today,” Ukai said.

The third years jumped towards him, saying, “Really?” in near perfect unison.

Ukai held up his hands. “You guys have worked hard,” he said, “You deserve a treat.”

Today was the best day in a while for the boy’s volleyball team, and deep down, everyone hoped that this high would last forever.

The night came and went quickly, as it was close to the solstice. The sun was up early that Saturday, and so was Karasuno’s boys volleyball team. The bus to Tokyo was scheduled to leave at 7:00 am, but Ukai and Takeda had some final points they wanted to talk about before the trip, so every player found themselves lying half dead inside of the second gym at 6:15 am.

Despite everyone being half-asleep from the early wake up, they all listened intently as Ukai and Takeda went on a final run-through of that week’s plans. 

Yachi, who didn’t fully need to pay attention, as she was more or less just following Kiyoko everywhere and helping her out, felt her head growing heavier with every passing moment. She had stayed up entirely too late that night, first panicking about what to wear, then panicking about the scary volleyball players that she would inevitably meet there, and finally realizing that despite all that panicking about what to wear, she hadn’t actually finished packing.

Luckily, before she could totally nod off, Ukai clapped his hands. “Alright, now, let’s go to Tokyo!”

Despite his enthusiastic exclamation, the tired students only let out a half-hearted cheer before wobbling onto the bus, Yachi following Kiyoko as the last to get on.

The bus itself was rather cramped, with every player bringing on a large duffel bag, along with their usual volleyball bags, and Kiyoko had made sure to bring as many balls and first aid equipment as she could, to ensure they’d be well prepared for the training camp. When Yachi looked around, she noticed that Kiyoko was sitting on the right hand side of the aisle, in the single seats, meaning she’d have to find another seat. She glanced around spotting the orange haired boy, sitting alone just a seat ahead of her, though he sat in the aisle seat.

“Mind if I sit in the window seat?” She asked.

Hinata looked up, eyelids clearly very heavy already, “Wha? Oh, Yachi, yeah. Go ahead.”

Hinata got up from his seat, allowing the girl to slide into the window seat. Hinata plopped down beside her, almost immediately closing his eyes.

Yachi smiled, ‘He got almost no sleep too, huh?’ Yachi thought.

The bus started rolling, and Yachi turned to look out the window, taking in the scenery. The bus was silent, save for Tanaka’s half-snores.

A half of an hour or so into the bus ride, Kiyoko stood up in her seat, and looked over the bus. Save for Tsukishima, who was watching something on his phone, everyone else on the bus was fast asleep.

Kiyoko looked at the first years to her left. Hinata was fast asleep, sitting relatively straight up in the aisle seat, mouth wide open. His head was leaning to one side, resting on the person to his right. Yachi was also fast asleep, snugly tucked between Hinata’s head and shoulder. One of her hands gripped Hinata’s jacket sleeve, and her calm face showed a soft smile.

Kiyoko couldn’t stop herself from smiling, and turned back around to sit in her seat again. She closed her eyes, letting sleep finally catch up to her. Only a few more hours left until they’d be in Tokyo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Nishikata-sensei is a Karakai Jouzo no (Moto) Takagi-san reference. I just caught up with the manga, and decided to have a little fun putting that reference in there.


	5. Meet the Managers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tokyo Expedition Arc is here! Despite all her pent up anxiety, Yachi is determined to have fun on this trip, and she takes the first step to achieving that goal. It's the first day, and what shenanigans will she get into this time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so, I spent a while contemplating what to do with this part of the story, since The Tokyo Expedition Arc contains a lot of very important character development for Hinata and Kageyama. As well as that, basically all of Hinata’s time during this training camp was spent playing volleyball, and I don’t want to change that. In my notes at the end of the chapter I'll outline my plan for the rest of the arc.

“Hey sleepyhead.” Yachi felt a finger poking into her forehead.

“Nnnnnrrrrrgggggh.” She shook the annoying finger off of her head, still incredibly groggy. It was the first time Yachi had ever been on such a long car ride before, and so she didn’t get all that deep a sleep. The fact that she barely got two hours of sleep the previous night didn’t help matters either.

From above where Yachi was lying down, she could hear someone giggling softly, though in her tired state she was unable to care who it was.

The giggling stopped, “You know, everybody else is already off the bus. We’re late.” The finger poked Yachi’s forehead again, and she groggily opened her eyes. Looking down on her was a beautiful girl, who she, thankfully, recognized.

Yachi’s drowsiness wore off in an instant, making her now aware of her situation. Here she was, lying down in one of the seats on the volleyball club’s bus, while everyone else was probably already training. She realized finally that they had arrived. Tokyo. Yachi sat up like a rocket, nearly socking Kiyoko’s nose in the process, “AH! I’msorryIwasjustsonervouslastnightandIdidn’tgetanysleepandImusthavepassedoutonyou!”

Yachi made eye contact with the manager. It was clear she was trying not to burst out laughing, covering her mouth, with her reddened cheeks round like a hamster’s. She couldn’t stop herself from laughing, though, and fell back into the seat behind her, one hand over her mouth, the other on her stomach. She roared with laughter, interspersed with words Yachi could hardly make out, “...Sleep!... nata!... Dreaming… so cute!”

After a few seconds of laughter, Kiyoko regained her composure, and sat up in her seat to face the very embarrassed Yachi sitting in the seat across from her. Yachi’s face had turned tomato red, and she dropped her head in clear embarrassment. 

Seeing that, Kiyoko couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for the girl. She knew how much this would be for her, and even Kiyoko had trouble getting to sleep last night (Though she managed it a lot better than Yachi did).

Kiyoko reached out to the tomato, and put a hand on her shoulder, “C’mon, let’s go meet the other managers. I’m sure they’re all excited to meet Karasuno’s girls.”

Yachi looked up, a smile forming on her face, “You got it!”

When Yachi first thought about meeting the other managers, she had worried that they’d make fun of her for knowing nearly nothing about volleyball, but Kiyoko had assured her that they’d be plenty accepting of someone who had just joined the team. 

At least, that’s what Kiyoko hoped. She had never met with managers from other schools outside of the occasional hello before or after games. To be honest, Kiyoko was really nervous about meeting managers from Tokyo. She worried about how serious they were, and if they’d make fun of her or not, but she would never let Yachi know that. Plus, if she had Yachi by her side everything would work out.

When the pair of girls walked through the hall towards the Home Economics room, where the managers’ meeting was supposed to take place, they heard shouts and laughter from ahead. Kiyoko smiled softly, thinking ‘this will be fun’.

Before they had even reached the room, the door flew open, and a girl, covered head to toe in white dust jumped out, unable to stand up straight with how hard she was laughing. The cloud of dust that was following her slowly settled to the ground as she tried to calm herself down. She put he hands on her knees, half-panting, haf-coughing up more dust. Yachi and Kiyoko stood together in stunned silence, invisible to the girl up until that point.

The girl looked up after a bit, finally noticing the two girls standing in the hallway. “Oh my god!” She jumped slightly, before shaking off some more dust like a dog shaking off water. Yachi noted that she could finally tell her hair color. Dark black, tied into two tails lying over her shoulders. 

By that point, more girls had wandered out of the Home Ec room, covered in various levels of white dust, which Kiyoko suspected was probably flour. They were all laughing hard, and a tall girl behind the rest of them had streaks down her flour covered face where tears had clearly fallen. They all stopped once they saw Kiyoko and Yachi, though out of curiosity more than anything.

A girl with lighter brown hair and a navy shirt stepped forward. She wasn’t the tallest one there, though she still towered over Yachi. Yachi found the freckles that dotted her face made her adorable, though she quickly scratched out that thought by noting she thought Kiyoko was still prettier.

The girl stuck out both arms all of a sudden, grabbing Yachi and Kiyoko into a crushing hug, way too strong even for someone of her stature.

She giggled, “You guys a so fuckin’ cute, oh my god! What do they do in Miyagi? How do you do it?”

With the tension broken, the other managers joined in, a chorus of “So cute”s and “How do you it”s. Yachi felt overwhelmed at first, but after making eye contact with the grinning Kiyoko, thought to herself, ‘I’ll be ok’. She released tension in her shoulders that she didn’t realize what she was holding, and smiled.

After a second, the other managers seemed to realize they were being a bit overwhelming to the new arrivals, and stepped back from the pair to compose themselves. One of the girls wearing a navy shirt waved to Yachi and Kiyoko, “I suppose you guys are the Karasuno managers? I’m Yukie, one of the Fukurodani managers.” She then gestured to the girl standing next to her, who had crushed Yachi and Kiyoko in the hug originally, “This is Kaori, from Fukurodani, too. Both of us are third years.”

The girl who had been covered in flour before spoke up, “I’m Eri Miyanoshita, from Ubugawa High, and I’m a second year!” She smiled from ear to ear, and gave the pair a thumbs up, before the last girl of the group spoke up.

“I’m Mako Otaki, from Shinzen High, it’s good to see some new faces from the same gender.”

Before Yachi could stop herself, she blurted out, “Nekoma doesn’t have a manager?”

The girls looked at each other before laughing, “You think any girl would want to join a team that Yamamoto is on?” Yukie started, “Kuroo told me about his attempts to find a manager, but no boys want to do it, and any of the girls who were interested lost interest after meeting Yamamoto.”

Yachi thought to herself, Is he really that bad?

A poke to her shoulder from Kiyoko got her attention, and Kiyoko asked Yukie, “Yamamoto is the one with the blonde mohawk right?”

Yukie looked surprised, “You know him?”

“It would be hard not to. Two of our second years tried to kill him for hitting on me.”

Next to Yukie, Kaori laughed, “What the hell? How did that happen?”

“Let’s just say Karasuno is a strange team. I think you’ll quickly come to see what I mean.”

From there, the girls kept talking for what seemed like hours. As it was the first day, they didn’t have any duties until dinner time rolled around, so they were free to do what they wanted for the next few hours. 

The Home Ec room was a mess at that point, too. Eri explained to Yachi that she wanted to bake some cookies for the players to celebrate after dinner, but she and Mako got a little bit too playful with the flour and she had gotten the short straw. Kaori and Yukie tried to put a stop to their antics, though Eri confessed that there’s not much you can do to get Mako to stop a flour rampage once she’s started.

At around 2 pm or so, Yukie’s phone pinged in her pocket in the middle of an extensive discussion of boys’ hairstyle. Her face lit up, “Guys! Akaashi says that the teams are all done with introductions, so the gym will probably be open for about an hour or so while the boys get settled into their dorms.” She locked eyes with Eri, who lit up as well, “I think you’re picking up what I’m putting down, Eri.”

“Volleyball with the managers?”

“Volleyball with the managers.”

Without really cleaning up the mess of flour that was the Home Ec room, the girls made their way through the school towards the gym, following Eri, who was bouncing up and down as she walked. Yachi smiled to herself imagining the girl as a rabbit who just found an enormous supply of carrots.

“You’re awfully bubbly today, Eri,” Mako said. 

Eri twirled around in a 540° spin to face Mako, “Today’s a good day! We’ve got two new managers and now we can play some 3-on-3’s!”

Yachi gulped, “Uh… I’ve never played volleyball before, so I’m not gonna be any good.”

Kaori slapped Yachi on the back, causing her to stumble a bit, “That’s totally fine! We’re not nearly as good as the boys.”

“You’re just as competitive as Bokuto when you get into it,” Yukie grumbled.

“That’s not true at all!”

“Yes, it most definitely is.”

“Nuh uh he’s way worse.”

“Last year when we did this you chest bumped Mako so hard she flew like 3 meters.”

Kaori feigned disgust, but couldn’t hide her smile, “I was just getting into the game!”

“My point exactly,” Yukie teased.

Eri opened the door to the gym, and Yachi’s eyes bulged. Inside, three volleyball nets had been set up to play, with the rest of the equipment rolled off to the sides. She counted at least 10 bags full of volleyballs, and 4 scoreboards. “It’s so… big,” Yachi breathed.

Kiyoko, next to her, laughed, “I guess you haven’t been in Sendai’s Gymnasium, have you? The whole court is a little larger than this, plus there’s a lot of seating for spectators.” SHe turned to the first-year manager beside her, smiling at the gleaming look in her eye, like a little kid who’s about to receive dessert.

“When can we see it?”

“Well, I guess when we have to go in for qualifying for Spring Nationals? Though I don’t know how far they’ll get, since Seijoh and Shiratorizawa will be there…”

“We’re gonna beat them,” Yachi stated matter of factly.

“Huh?”

“We’re gonna beat Seijoh and Shiratorizawa, Sho- I mean Hinata told me so.”

Mako butted in, “He said you’re gonna beat Shiratorizawa? That’s a tall ask for the Wingless Crows, don’t you think?”

Yachi turned to Mako, “Once you meet Hinata and Kageyama, you won’t think it’s that much of a tall ask anymore, Mako.”

“Really now,” Mako held up her hands in defeat, “I want to meet this Hinata now and find out why he’s so confident.”

“You’ll have to ask Yachi’s permission first,” Kiyoko teased.

“WHATS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” Yachi shouted. She huffed, “He’s just a good friend and he got me to join the club that’s all.”

Yachi turned to glare at Kiyoko, who was whispering into Yukie’s ear, a smile growing on both of their faces.

“What are you telling Yukie?!”

Kiyoko raised her arms, “Nothing! Nothing, I swear!”

Yachi sighed, “Better be.”

Before Kiyoko could tease Yachi any more, Eri spoke up from across the gym, “Guys! We can use my team’s volleyballs, they won’t mind.”

Eri wheeled a basket of volleyballs over to the nearest court, while Kaori brought out some water bottles from an adjacent room. Yukie stood next to Yachi with her hands on her hips, looking over the scene.

“How should we split the teams, Yachi?” Yukie asked.

Yachi turned to her, “I don’t know everyone that well, so we should just go with whatever’s fairest, right?”

On Yachi’s other side, Mako spoke up, “We’re not letting Kaori and Yukie be on the same team ever again.”

Yachi was puzzled, “Why’s that?”

“Bokuto makes Yukie and Kaori play with him once the rest of the boys are done for the day, so they get a lot more experience of actually playing volleyball than we do,” Mako explained, “Last year when we had this training camp, there were five of us, Eri’s senpai was there as well, and Kaori and Yukie crushed Eri, Me, and Eri’s senpai in every single match. Kaori is just a ridiculous bundle of energy when she gets going, like Bokuto, and Yukie is cold and calculating, like Akaashi.”

Yachi nodded, “I see. If you don’t mind me asking, who are Bokuto and Akaashi?”

Mako smiled. “I guess you’ve never met any of the Fukurodani players, have you? Bokuto is their captain, a third year Wing Spiker and one of the 5 best wing spikers in the country. Akaashi is vice-captain, but he’s the mastermind behind the team. Without Akaashi, Bokuto would not be nearly as prosperous, for lack of a better word, as he is today.”

Yukie laughed, adding, “Bokuto has a tendency to be a little… How do I put this… Dumb? His play is totally determined by his attitude, and he gets down for the dumbest things. Like last year when we played Nekoma he got sad when Yamamoto’s little sister called him dogshit and he couldn’t hit a spike for the rest of the set.”

Mako continued, “Akaashi is like 90% of Bokuto’s impulse control, and he has a weird knock for knowing exactly what Bokuto is thinking, even without him saying anything.”

Before Yukie could start what was probably a very long rant about Bokuto’s mental shortcomings, Eri called to them, “All of the ball’s are good. Are we ready to start?”\

“I haven’t decided on teams yet,” Yukie said.

Kaori groaned, “Give me Yachi and Eri and I’ll be happy.”

Yukie looked surprised, “Huh? Okay, I’ll take Mako and Kiyoko then.”

Eri smiled, before running over to Kaori and Yachi and linking her arms with them. “What should our team name be?” She asked.

Kaori smiled, “Team Yachi? She can be our official mascot.”

“I don’t want to be一”

“Team Yachi it is!” Eri shouted, pumping her fists into the air, “Let’s fucking do this!”

“Team name, huh,” Yukie mumbled, watching their three eccentric opponents, “Let’s be team Kiyoko then!”

“Hey wait.”

Mako grinned, poking Kiyoko in the shoulder, “No complaints here.”

Yukie then called to Team Yachi, “We’ve decided on team Kiyoko, and you’re not gonna win this.”

Kaori called back, “Whatever you say, Shorty! I’ll beat your ass.”

“You can try, horse-ass!”

With pleasantries utterly forgotten, the game began.

It’s safe to say that Yachi was the worst one there. Despite being given three chances for each serve, it was only by the end of the first set that she even managed to get the ball inbounds. Her receiving was poor. The ball never went where she wanted it to go. Her sets were bad. They weren’t even close to being on target.

But the rest of the girls didn’t seem to care at all. They encouraged her, cheering when she got her first serve over the net, and Kaori threw Yachi up in the air when she got her first point (Even though it was mostly because Mako ran straight into Kiyoko). When she messed up they never got mad, and just encouraged her to keep working at it.

Yachi thought to herself, ‘I’m happy. This is where I want to be, surrounded by these people.’

Sadly though, Yachi’s improvement couldn’t get Team Yachi all the way, as they slumped just short of Team Kiyoko… 16-25… (Okay not ‘just short’, but Kaori made sure Yachi knew it was all thanks to her that they had gotten even 16 in the first place). 

By the time their first set had ended, it was already time to give the gym to the boys, and for the managers to get started on dinner preparations in the cafeteria. Before that though, thankfully, Yachi was able to shower the sweat that caked her body.

Yachi tried to remember the last time she had put so much effort into physical activity, but if there even was a time, it slipped her mind.

Despite sleeping like a rock on the ride to Tokyo, Yachi had never felt like she’d gotten a good amount of sleep today, which was by no means helped by exhausting herself playing volleyball with the girls. What she really needed right now was a warm bath followed immediately by a long slumber in her bed.

Sadly, she had to make do with a quick, cold shower, before it was straight to work on dinner. At least the icy water would keep her awake for a while, she thought to herself.

It wasn’t the most glorious or the most comfortable place to be working and staying for the next week or so, but already Yachi felt herself relaxing a lot more than she’d ever imagined being able to do during the trip. As they made their way from the girls’ locker rooms to the cafeteria, Yachi laughed and talked with the other managers like she had known them a lot longer than five hours, only stopping to glance at Kiyoko, who shot back a beaming smile that told her, ‘I’m proud of you’.

As they began preparing dinner, Yachi was startled at how bad at cooking the rest of the managers seemed to be. ‘Maybe they didn’t get into a food fight in the Home Ec room?’ Yachi thought to herself, though she didn’t air those thoughts.

“What the hell Yachi, you actually know what you’re doing?” Eri peered over Yachi’s shoulder amazed.

“Have you never used a rice cooker before?” Yachi asked.

Eri shook her head, before scratching the back of it, “Nope, my mom does all the cooking in the house.”

Yachi nodded, “That would make a little bit of sense. My mom usually isn’t home at dinnertime so I’m the one who makes most of our meals. I guess I’m just more experienced?”

Eri laughed, “You can say that again. What can I do that doesn’t take too much brain power?”

Yachi closed the lid on the rice cooker before peering around the kitchen at the rest of the managers. Kiyoko stood near to the sink, cutting up all of the meat, while Yukie and Kaori argued over how to properly cut up a cucumber. By the far side of the kitchen Mako stood alone, trying to make some pudding, though it was not going very well, as there seemed to be more pudding on her apron than there was in the bowl in front of her. She stood, hunched over the recipe while scratching her head, as if the ingredients were the problem.

“I suppose you can help Yukie and Kaori with the vegetables? I’m gonna start actually cooking the dishes, but I don’t know how much you trust yourself with that. If you want, send Yukie or Kaori over to help me, whichever one’s the better chef.”

Eri saluted Yachi, “You got it boss.”

A minute later, Yukie made her way over to the stoves to help Yachi.

“So, Yachi.”

“Yukie.” Yachi raised an eyebrow, but still kept her focus on the dishes in front of her.

“How’s Hinata?”

Yachi put down the pot she had been holding a little too quickly, and it made a loud clanging sound on the stovetop, “What did Kiyoko tell you?” Yachi asked, half whispering, half speaking.

Yukie responded in the same half whisper, “Only that your face turns beet red when you talk about him.”

“No it doesn’t!”

Yukie snickered, “You should look in a mirror, Yachi.”

Yachi grabbed her cheeks. They were a little warmer than usual, but Yachi hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. Thinking she couldn’t really get out of talking about Hinata, she sighed, “What do you want to know?”

“Well for starters, who is he? The only thing I know about him is that he said Karasuno would beat Shiratorizawa.”

Yachi thought for a second on what she should say, “Well for starters, he’s a first year like me, and he’s short, too. Only like 165 cm.”

“165 cm? Does he play at all?”

Yachi nodded, grinning. “Every game. He’s insane. He can jump higher than Sugawara-senpai can, so his height doesn’t matter.”

“Whoa, really? I wanna see that.”

“It’s freaky. He’s so fast, and he never runs out of energy. One day they scrimmaged the local neighborhood team and he played every rally, only to bike me home afterwards. From there it’s a forty minute bike ride home! He’s crazy.”

Yukie flashed Yachi a sneaky smile, and Yachi’s smile dropped, “I said too much, didn’t I?”

Yukie tried to suppress her laughter, “I think you did.” She broke out into a sly grin, “Tell me more about Hinata biking you home. Is his bike a two-seater?”

“No, not really. I sat on the bag rack on the back of his.”

“Sounds awfully intimate to me,” Yukie remarked in a sing-songy voice.

Yachi knew her blush was showing now. Her face was heating up faster than the food being prepared in front of her. Yukie grinned, shoving Yachi’s shoulder, “I’m messing with you, but I do want to know more about this shorty.”

“I mean there’s not that much else. I was helping him study since he needed to pass all of his exams in order to go on this trip, and then he helped me convince my mom to let me join volleyball club.”

“So he’s met your family, oh?”

“I told you it’s not like that!”

“Seems pretty serious to me,” Yukie teased.

“I only met him like two, three weeks ago, anyways. There’s not much else to talk about because I’ve only know him for a hot minute.”

Yukie rubbed Yachi’s hair, “Well it looks like you get along well, and that’s all I care about. Maybe I should thank him for letting me meet you.”

“Let’s not do that,” Yachi grumbled.

“Alright alright. Let’s focus on making dinner now. I think the boys will be here in a few minutes.”

Yachi frowned, “Hey, wait a second, I get picked on about Hinata but I don’t get to ask you about boys? Who was it, Akaashi?”

Before Yukie could say anything, Kaori called from across the room, “I can tell you all about Akaashi and Yukie if you want!”

Yukie shot a glare at the girl, “I’ll hurt you, horse ass!”

Kaori scoffed, “You can try, Shorty.”

Yachi sighed. ‘It will take some work to pry anything out of these people,’ she thought, ‘but I feel comfortable.’ She smiled, ‘I can live with this.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the much slower release on this. Originally I had written all of the first two chapters and most of the third when I published the first chapter, so chapter releases will be slower from now on!
> 
> The chapters in which I'll be covering the Tokyo Expedition Arc will be of varying length. Essentially, over the course of writing this I've been jotting down fun side story ideas and shenanigans for the characters to get into, so a lot of these will be those ideas. As such, the lengths will vary a lot.


	6. Meet the Idiots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nobody would say that the training camp was lacking in volleyball ability, but it would be hard to argue that it had any semblance of intelligence. This is what happens when you take away 90% of each team's impulse control, the captains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first of many short stories that will take place during the Tokyo Expedition Arc. I’m totally willing to write some of your guys’ suggestions if you have anything you really want to see, so don’t be afraid to leave some suggestions! This one’s gonna be a little bit short but bear with me, I’m planning on writing a long chapter soon which I hope you guys will enjoy.

With very little oversight, the boys volleyball clubs from Shinzen, Ubugawa, Nekoma, Fukurodani, and Karasuno have a penchant for doing dumb shit. That was plain to see for the saner members of each team from the second the introductions ended and they were sent to their rooms to put their stuff away, but thankfully they didn’t have time to fool around yet, as they had practice immediately afterwards.

But practice was over.

It’s safe to say the boys locker room was utter chaos. Towels were flying, people scrambled to get into the showers just to get out of the room as quickly as possible. By the end of it, forgotten towels were strewn across the floor, deodorant sticks collected under the benches, and sweaty shirts totally missed the hampers.

Daichi, Akaashi, and Kuroo stood in the center of it all, surveying the scene. Kuroo, who seemed to find it the funniest, had his hand on his hips, standing like a pregnant woman while trying to stop smiling. He spoke first, “Who are we gonna make clean up?”

Akaashi, who already had a pretty good idea of who instigated the locker room brawl, pinched the bridge of his nose, “I have a feeling that you guys have some kids on your team who you can already say were a part of this, whatever this was?”

Daichi chuckled slightly, hands crossed over his chest while he sat on the nearest bench, “Definitely. Should we force them to clean up?”

Kuroo and Akaashi nodded, before Kuroo started, “Well I know I don’t want to do the work. My body’s built up rough lactic acid for the day.”

Akaashi looked to Kuroo before sighing, “You’re always obsessed with weird biology shit I don’t get it sometimes. Anyway, I’m going to grab Bokuto. He was probably the ring leader of this whole operation.”

“I think most of my team was involved in this. Lev and Yamamoto definitely, so I’ll get them,” Kuroo said, smiling.

“I’ll grab my idiots then,” Daichi added, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He stood up to leave, before Akaashi and Kuroo followed him out. Daichi looked at the two, confused, before Akaashi explained, “Everyone’s probably already at dinner, so we should just go there.”

Kuroo nodded, adding, “Plus, who knows what they’ll get up to without us keeping an eye on them.”

Daichi’s face dropped a little, “I didn’t think about that.”

At the very least, the cafeteria wasn’t in complete ruins.

Unfortunately, when Daichi, Kuroo, and Akaashi entered the room, they saw all of the players crowded in the middle of the room, cheering and shouting. The first thought that crossed Akaashi’s mind was, ‘I swear if Bokuto’s started an eating competition.’

The group made their way through the crowd, and with every step, Akaashi realized just how right he was. 

In the middle of the crowd, Bokuto sat at a small table, shoving his face full of rice, wet hair matted to his head. He looked like a sailor just rescued from the ocean, who hadn’t had a proper meal in a week. His opponent next to him looked drier, but not much better. His grey hair was totally frizzled, having been dried very quickly, and his cheeks were expanded like a balloon. There was almost as much rice plastered to his face as there was in his mouth, and every bite he took caused the grains to go flying. Akaashi sighed, deciding that this was probably not the worst thing that could happen.

Stepping out from behind Akaashi, Kuroo surveyed the scene and promptly fell to the floor wheezing. He managed to sputter out, “Lev what the fuck is that face?!”

The grey haired boy looked up from his bowl of rice, noticing the captains had arrived for the first time, and his eyes opened wide. He tried to say something, but that only caused even more rice to go flying, and his words were mumbled beyond coherence.

Daichi arrived last, snorting when he saw the scene in front of him, very clearly trying to contain his laughter. He took a deep breath, letting the comedy out through his exhale, before speaking. “How did this happen in the five to ten minutes that I was gone?”

He turned to the rest of his team before continuing, “FIVE MINUTES GUYS!”

Surveying the Karasuno boys interspersed throughout the crowd, he noticed a distinctive lack of two idiots, before thinking to himself, ‘Oh god.’

The crowd around the eating competition quieted down with Daichi’s shouting. Clearly, not just the Karasuno team was afraid of him when he was angry.

He patrolled around the group, like drill sargeant, eyeing each and every boy there, most of which had begun sweating out of nervousness. If Daichi shouted “ATEEEEENTION!” at that moment, every kid there probably would have saluted him without second thought. As the players were mostly scared for their lives, Daichi could finally hear the voices of some of the players who surprisingly (not surprisingly) weren’t in the crowd.

Daichi made his way towards the voices, and before managing to exit the crowd, he was able to hear them clearly.

“Come on Kiyoko just a little bit more?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, no more rice!”

“Now, Kiyoko, you know how much we love you, if you cou一”

“I said no! Do you think confessing your love to me for the millionth time is gonna change things? Why do you need so much goddamn rice in the first place?”

Daichi exited the crowd.

Before him were the idiots of the second year. Karasuno’s Klutzes, Tanaka and Nishinoya. Of course they didn’t notice everyone quieting down behind them, or Daichi slowly making his way over to the two.

With every step he took, the room grew darker, as if he was absorbing all the light, channeling it into his anger.

Witness testimony after the event (Interviews were performed by a very hungover Takeda-sensei, after very un-elegantly losing to Coach Nekomata in a drinking competition) described Daichi as literally on fire, although their testimonies differ on the particular color that the flames were burning, with the most common consensus being black flames.

The floor around Daichi cracked with every step, leaving rather menacing craters in his wake.

At this point, most of the students were trembling in fear. Ennoshita was hastily writing obituaries for the pair, while Kinoshita was on the phone with a priest. Two of Shinzen High’s first years had passed out. In the middle of the crowd, Ubugawa High’s captain hastily performed the heimlich on Lev, who now officially had more rice spread around the room than inside his body.

Still, though, Nishinoya and Tanaka didn’t pick up on the ominous presence heading toward them, though Kiyoko did. She was worried, mostly because she didn’t want to have to buy funeral clothes, but didn’t say anything.

Behind her, the rest of the managers huddled in the corner of the kitchen, whispering bets on what was to follow. Eri bet on a battle, but Yachi knew better, betting that the next day would see Tanaka and Nishinoya arriving to training in straightjackets. 

Nishinoya was still talking to Tanaka, “Do you think this is enough rice for another round?”

Tanaka, beside him, shrugged, “We have to have it quick though, before Daichi一”

A hand fell onto each of their shoulders.

“一comes back…”

Daichi leaned in between their heads, whispering, “I’m back.”

Yachi could audibly hear the pair gulping from a few meters away. 

Tanaka was the first to break the resulting silence, “This isn’t what you think it is.”

“Oh so you weren’t trying to convince Kiyoko here to give you a fuckton of rice in order to continue an eating competition, which you were trying to hide from me because you know I’d get mad at you?”

“It- It’s exactly what you think it is…” Nishinoya and Tanaka hung their heads in shame.

“Now,” Daichi wondered out loud, “How should I punish these idiots?”

He scratched his chin, feigning deep though, before jumping, like an idea had popped into his head, “I know!”

Turning back to the crowd, which had continued to watch in silence, he called out, “Akaashi, Kuroo, mind if I borrow Bokuto and Lev?”

Akaashi, who had made his way to the front of the crowd, replied with a nod, while Kuroo, who was dusting himself off from his meeting with the ground, grunted in consent.

Daichi looked between the crowd and his idiots. “You four are going to clean the entire locker room, toilets and all. If it’s not spotless, I’m making you do it again, got it?”

Nishinoya let out a groan.

“Nishinoya, you don’t sound very happy, what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing, sir! I was just sighing with gratitude at being able to clean the locker room for you sir!”

Daichi smiled mischievously, “Good. Get to work, you four. I’ll be down in an hour.”

Three of the sinners trudged out of the room, heads hung, followed by the last sinner, Bokuto. He half-crawled, half-waddled out of the room, a combination of a hungover man and a VERY pregnant woman. He clutched his stomach, too, either protecting his baby or nursing a bulging stomach.

Once the doors to the cafeteria closed, attention turned to Daichi, who stood between the kitchen and crowd, hands crossed over his chest, and a furious expression still sitting on his face. He noticed the stares, before growling. “What are you all looking at, finish eating.”

And without a word, the crowd dispersed back to their tables.

The fun had ended.

For now.


End file.
